Nehemiah – Chapter 6

Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. Nehemiah 6:2 – We see within this chapter Nehemiah had a gift from the Lord every believer today should seek to have…discernment. Our chapter shows the work of the wall rebuild was almost complete and the enemy sought out their last efforts to stop the completion from happening. Here they sent letters to Nehemiah, politely inviting him to a meet up, all under the guise of friendship and maybe even reconciliation. Yet because of Nehemiah’s godly discernment, he saw through it and knew it was their way of isolating him to harm him. As stated a moment ago, we today should seek to have such discernment in our life. Our enemy’s goal of stopping us from following Jesus is still here, and he will get creative on how he plans to accomplish his goal. He’ll lie, he’ll misdirect, he’ll bring in “friends” to help us, and he’ll even use scripture out of context. If we aren’t careful we will fall prey to his traps. In these spaces we need discernment from the Lord. How though do we have such discernment? First know you can pray for it. Ask the Lord for His wisdom and discernment over things in life. Second, find yourself steadily in the word. Often the ways the enemy will seek to mislead us is by twisting the truths of scripture just enough to make them still believable, yet they are tainted with Satan’s lies. Invest in your knowledge of scripture so when those twisted truths are shared with you that you can see them for what they are. As a follower of Jesus know the enemy will be seeking to stop you from following the Lord, choose though to be discerning when such efforts arise so you can continue to serve the Lord faithfully as Nehemiah did through his attacks. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3403

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