Today is the concluding part of Making Progress Amidst Oppositions. In the previous studies, we saw how Nehemiah was seriously intimidated, harassed and insulted by Sanballat and his group members so that the wall of Jerusalem would not be rebuilt. Today’s devotional is pointing out steps Nehemiah took that made him and his people finished the rebuilding of the walls. The lessons learn from these steps will give us the keys to make progress amidst oppositions before us. We will pick on the major steps for want of space. (1). Nehemiah confronted the challenging problems with prayers. When he heard about the news of the dilapidating walls, he prayed to have favour from the King of Persia (Neh. 1: 5 – 10). When the enemies came to attack he handed them over to God in prayers (Neh. 4: 4, 8-9). (2). Nehemiah went round all the gates to see the extent of the damages to know how to tackle the problems.
(3). Nehemiah divided the gates to families to handle. This gives room for divisions of labours, making the work load lighter for each family. (4). Also, Nehemiah developed strategy for counter attack on the enemies. He planted his people families by families equipping them with weapons for self-defense in case the enemies will descend on them for attack. He motivated the workers to see the fight as defending their people. Nehemiah made the enemies know about his plans for them. This made the enemies to advise themselves and withdraw. Christians should know how to make themselves ready for self-defense and work in unity to face their external enemies.
(5). Nehemiah knew Sanballat, his arch-enemy very well as a man of intrigue and deception. This is why Nehemiah refused attending a proposed meeting with Sanballat in the office of a Prelist (Neh. 6: 2 – 4). This point should be looked into seriously by Christians. Many Christians believe in people on face values. Many of us have lived carelessly with people which gave them opportunity to deal with us dangerously. By use of wisdom, Nehemiah found out that a letter purported to be written by people accusing Nehemiah of plotting revolt against King Artaxerxes was not true. The beloved, we are to learn these lessons from Nehemiah to make progress amidst oppositions. Nehemiah got through them; we too will get through them.
PRAYER:
BLESSED FATHER, all problems from our enemies have the ways of overcoming them. Kindly grant us the knowledge to know how to make progress in whatever our opponents confront us with, in Jesus name.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch