- In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” Nehemiah 6:5-7 – Our enemy can be very persistent in trying to get us to crumble in fear and stop the work we are doing. We though don’t have to stop just because we have an enemy attacking. Here this Sanballat was constantly trying to stop Nehemiah from finishing the wall. Letter after letter, threat and threat, all to keep him from finishing the mission God had for him. What we see in Nehemiah is that you can keep on moving forward with what God has called you to do even when the enemy is persistent in trying to stop you. Expect the enemy to come when you push forward faithfully. Realize that pushback is coming, have confidence that what you are doing is what God has called you to do, then trust God to take care of the enemy. Never stop the work of our mission of letting people know about Jesus just because of pushback. It’s the most important thing in the world for us to do. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1288
- For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. Nehemiah 6:13 – My chapter heading says “Conspiracy against Nehemiah.” It ought though to say “conspiracies” because multiple times his enemies sought to take him out. They first sent multiple letters to have a “meetup,” but Nehemiah knew it was a trap to do him harm. Then they sought to spread a rumor about him to the king. They even hired someone from among the people that was close to Nehemiah to lead him into sin so they could tarnish his name. All this because Nehemiah was being faithful to the mission given to him to rebuild the wall. It can seem so illogical why others may say what they say or do what they do towards our faithful efforts. Why would hate and such evil be coming our way when all we are doing is trying to be faithful in following what God has told us to do? We must remember the root of their pushback comes from our enemy. Satan despises the work of our Lord and any effort to follow Jesus he is going to seek to disrupt. Know then a life of faithfully following Jesus is also a life of enduring Satan’s attacks. We then are to take up the armor of God and not forsake the gathering of ourselves together, as scripture guides us to do, so we can remain standing and moving forward. While hearing that Satan’s attacks are coming your way when you follow Jesus may begin to instill fear within you, fear not, for those that are with us and far more than those who are with our enemy, and our God will crush the enemy underneath His feet. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2509
Daily DEVO 