If You Build It...

Dear Friends,

This week I've been reminded of one of the fundamental truths of the Christian life: the enemy of God, Satan, is actively working against God's children. Whether it’s through challenges, hardships, failures, bad news, or obstacles in our way, Satan will use whatever he can to try and discourage us. And he does so hoping our discouragement will cause us to quit in our walk with God.

Satan’s strategy shouldn't be a surprise to us, because the Bible is full of stories of folks who suffered through troubles an hardships as they tried to live out a life of obedience to God. Job, Joseph, and David are examples that come to mind almost immediately. However, my favorite example is probably Nehemiah.

For those of you who may not know his story, Nehemiah was a top-ranking servant in the palace of King Artexerxes. It was during a period in the history of Israel when the Israelites were living in exile in foreign lands, and as a result, Jerusalem had fallen into disrepair. God put it on Nehemiah's heart to leave the comfort of the palace and return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls - and Nehemiah responded in obedience. In doing so, Nehemiah sacrificed everything he knew to obey God.

However, as he undertook this great work for God, there were obstacles at almost every turn. But rather than let the obstacles overwhelm him, Nehemiah pushed forward. In doing so, he gives us a great example of how we should respond when troubles come our way as well. Listen to Nehemiah 1:5, which tells us that when his very first obstacle came up, Nehemiah responded by praying, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love Him and obey His commands, listen to my prayer!”

When problems came up, Nehemiah didn't stop what he was doing. He didn't retreat. He didn’t hide from his trouble. Instead, he prayed. He called out to God and brought his problems to Him. And in doing so, he shows us what we need to do as well. When problems come our way, we need to turn them over to God and let Him deal with them. 1 Peter 5:7 puts it like this, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.”

God cares about us, He wants to help us, and He wants us to persevere in our walk with Him. So when troubles come our way, He is there, eager to help lift our burden. And when we take those troubles to Him in prayer, He can encourage us, give us wisdom, and give us new perspective - even if the circumstances don't change. And these are all things that will help us stand strong in our obedience to Him.

So today, no matter what problems we face, let's take them to God in prayer. Let's follow Nehemiah's example and cry out to God for His help so that we can move forward in obedience, and persevere in our service to Him.

Amen?

Daniel