Keep Your Peace

June 14, 2021

And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish— stones that are burned?”

~Nehemiah 4:2~

It seems to be whenever God has used a man or woman to do His work the enemy has a pawn to use to create discouragement in God's servants. We see this in Nehemiah's story as he worked with his hands to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem after its fall. Here comes Sanballat and Tobiah mocking and jeering at them in the midst of their building. The words that came from them in hopes to discourage and cause Nehemiah and his crew to stop all together, but they didn't. We have all had those moments, some are having them right now. God calls us to do something that may look strange to others or it may even cause others to become jealous and bitter. They will try all they can to cause one to doubt in their work in hopes that they may stop all together. It is up to us how we allow mockers to make us respond. Do we give up or do we give it to God and keep going? Nehemiah gave it to God immediately; "Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders. So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work."

(Nehemiah 4:5‭-‬6)

The strength in Nehemiah's spirit and the love in his heart for God and His people was sufficient enough to have him keep pushing through. Of course there were other tactics that were thrown at Nehemiah during this project to attempt to get him to stop, yet he did not allow anything to stop him and he trusted in his God above all. Are we being mocked, tormented or discouraged by someone who may just want us to stop working for God all together? God is bigger then any of this. Say Nehemiah had allowed his tormentors to win; this wall may not have been rebuilt and there would not have been such victory for the rest of the people who needed it after such tragedy. Others counted on him and he knew that opinions of the opposite did not matter one bit. Are we finding ourselves letting comments from others deter us from moving ahead with what God is calling us to do? Sometimes we may look silly to the world but to God we are fulfilling His plan. Nehemiah in a way was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Our Lord was mocked heavily, jeered at and abused. He was framed, lied about and rejected; "Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “ It is as you say.” And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing." (Matthew 27:11‭-‬12)

He too, pushed on ignoring His tormentors while fulfilling God's plan. He did not allow comments to determine His path. He did not attempt to seek justice. He trusted in God the Father. He gave Himself to Him. Nehemiah trusted that no matter what was said about him or to him could never change how God sees him and is using him. When something attempts to discourage us on our path, let us too give it right to God and keep on moving forward. We can trust that however we were called into it, we will be brought through it. If we allow our adversary to win, we may have others in our path that will suffer as well. We never know where Jesus is taking us, yet we can follow. We will always have something that will try to stop us in the midst of God's work, for they tried to stop Jesus and overwhelm Him too. Yet, He pushed through and called us to do the same; "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." (John 15:18)

We can look back on the victory that came to be when control was given to God.

"Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps."

(Nehemiah 12:27)

Celebration broke out and shouts went high! For the wall was built and God's people prevailed!

"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

(Matthew 28:6‭-‬7)

Jesus kept His promise and rose up on the third day, alive and glorified He walked back to celebrate with His disciples! If discouragement makes us think twice about ourselves with God or causes us to waver, we may be holding ourselves back from seeing God's intended glory. Scripture allows us to look back and forward at the same time. It allows us to trust that God will always bring us out in victory as we trust in Him. It shows us the strong men and women who did not allow their mockers to stunt their walk. We too can be this strong in the Lord. He is waiting to show us how He did it and give us the ability to do it too. If you are feeling mocked, abused or tormented by some who may just be sent as messengers to stop you, keep on moving my friends. God is about to do something big! I speak from experience when I say glory always follows those moments of attempted weariness. God is watching, let us give it to Him and keep on moving towards the One who never gave up on us!

Prayer:

Gracious God, thank you for pushing forward for me. I am grateful for Your Son, who never allowed His mockers to stop Your will from taking full effect. If not for Him, i would not be able to know You. I pray to always keep my eyes focused on what You are telling me to do and not allow anyone around me to cause any hinderance in that plan. I know the devil uses pawns to attempt disruptions but Lord show me how to keep ignoring his foolish games and striving towards the prize of victory for my people, as Nehemiah did. I know that in the end my wall of glory will be built, my joy of the Lord will be magnified and my heart will be completely Yours. I long to do as You wish and I know nothing aside from my own response can hinder this. I give glory to You and praises be lifted on high for the King of Kings who did not allow abuse, mockery and rejection to stop Him from continuing on in peace. That is the King I vow to serve till I see Him face to face, my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.