Strength is Quite Important for One being Led by God

Scripture: Nehemiah 2:19-20

But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" So I answered them and said to them, "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem."

Insights: There is this unwritten rule that holds true most of the time that states, as soon as you start living by faith, opposition comes.  The people of Jerusalem had just declared, “Let us arise and build,” and the vile Sanballat and Tobiah, along with Geshem, showed up and started their task of attempting to thwart this building program.  The Hebrew word for mock in this verse literally means, “to stammer, to stutter, to utter repeatedly words of derision.”  In other words, this attempt by these fiends was perpetual.  Notice, however, the way Nehemiah responded, “The God of heaven will give us success.”  He could have gathered up the troops king Artaxerxes had given to him and bullied Sanballat and Tobiah off of the grounds.  He could have tried reasoning with them.  He could have just gritted his teeth and pressed on with the task.  He could have done a lot of things in his own strength and power, but in the end he would have been frustrated, exhausted and living in despair at the job before him.  That scenario, thank the Lord, was not what happened.  Nehemiah, went to the Lord for strength and then under His power and provision declared this very truth to our scoundrels of our story.  Nehemiah had spent time alone with God in solitude.  As a result he surrendered to the will of God.  Now he was relying totally on the Lord to provide him the strength necessary to carry out the assignment.  It all went back to original focus.  Nehemiah’s eyes were on the Lord.  It is so amazing to me how so many “christians” can have their eyes all over the place.  They put their eyes on other people and become disappointed or disillusioned because all people fail.  They put their eyes on their own situations and become absorbed in self-pity.  They put their eyes on themselves and become puffed up with pride or demoralized by insecurity.  The reason is because when we put our eyes on anything other than the Lord we enter the comparing game.  It won’t work.  Beloved, keep your eyes on Jesus.  He is the only way to survive the attacks which come from obeying Him.

Questions:

1. Are you attempting to live life in your strength and power?
2. Have you exhausted yourself enough to turn and begin relying on Christ’s power in your life?

Prayer: Father, forgive me for all the times I attempt to carry the weight of my load.  It is childish and foolish, but how often I fall prey to this allusion of self-sufficiency.  Let me trust in Your strength and presence.  Amen.