The enemies of Nehemiah and the Jews had been trying to stop them from repairing the wall and gates around Jerusalem. Now the wall was completed, and all that was left was to hang the doors at the gates. Again their enemies rose up to try and stop them. They asked Nehemiah to come and meet them outside the city. But he knew they were trying to lure him into a trap, so he sent back this message: “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.” Nehemiah was doing what God had called him to do, and he was not willing to allow anything to distract him from it.<\/p>\n
Every single servant of the Lord needs to adopt Nehemiah’s attitude about life. We all need to be able to say “no” to anything that would distract us from doing what God has called us to do, whether it’s the enemy’s attempts to get us off track or our own failures. We are all imperfect people, flawed and stumbling along the road of life. Oxford professor C.S. Lewis wrote, \u201cIf only the will to walk is there\u2014God is pleased with our stumbles.\u201d Our heavenly Father knows when we are trying and when we are not. All that we need to be is willing to try, determined to hang on to Him, and we will be well enough. Someone once asked Paul Harvey, the journalist and radio commentator, to reveal the secret of his success. “I get up when I fall down,” he said.<\/p>\n
“LORD, help us to see what You have called us to put our hand to, and then give us the wisdom and strength to not let anything pull us away from that.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nehemiah 6 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in\u00a0some one of\u00a0<\/em>the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.\u00a05<\/sup>Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0Wherein\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith\u00a0it, that\u00a0<\/em>thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying,\u00a0There is\u00a0<\/em>a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore,\u00a0O God\u00a0<\/em>, strengthen my hands. 10<\/sup>\u00a0Afterward I came unto the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, who\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>shut up; and he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple: for they will come to slay thee; yea, in the night will they come to slay thee.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who\u00a0is there\u00a0<\/em>, that,\u00a0being\u00a0<\/em>as I\u00a0am\u00a0<\/em>, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.\u00a013<\/sup> Therefore\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>they might have\u00a0matter\u00a0<\/em>for an evil report, that they might reproach me.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear. 15<\/sup>\u00a0So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth\u00a0day\u00a0<\/em>of\u00a0the month\u00a0<\/em>Elul, in fifty and two days.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard\u00a0thereof\u00a0<\/em>, and all the heathen that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>about us saw\u00a0these things\u00a0<\/em>, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God. 17<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters unto Tobiah, and\u00a0the letters\u00a0<\/em>of Tobiah came unto them.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0For\u00a0there were\u00a0<\/em>many in Judah sworn unto him, because he\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the son in law of Shechaniah the son of Arah; and his son Johanan had taken the daughter of Meshullam the son of Berechiah.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0Also they reported his good deeds before me, and uttered my words to him.\u00a0And\u00a0<\/em>Tobiah sent letters to put me in fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The enemies of Nehemiah and the Jews had been trying to stop them from repairing the wall and gates around Jerusalem. Now the wall was completed, and all that was left was to hang the doors at the gates. Again their enemies rose up to try and stop them. They asked Nehemiah to come and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7388"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16408,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388\/revisions\/16408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}