Obstacles Everywhere!

Nehemiah 4: 1-3, 6-9, 14-15; 6:1-4, 15-16

 In the 70’s, the Steve Miller Band had a hit song called Jet Airliner. One of the lyric lines was, “You've got to go through hell before you get to heaven.” I recall revisiting that line in my head many times throughout this life, in an attempt to justify the difficulties I faced. There is no triumph without trial.

Nehemiah experienced this just as we do. Scorn and ridicule seemed to be constant. Scorn is the enemy’s oldest weapon. Ridicule needs no fact or argument. It is an attack on morale and breaks us down if we allow it to. Each time Nehemiah was faced with obstacles, his first response was prayer, then action.

Temptation to give up comes when we are at our weakest. Interruption, corruption, tragedy, ridicule, opposition and a host of other distractions are used by the evil one to disband our efforts to do good things for the Lord and to live our lives in accordance with the scriptures.

When faced with difficulties, and obstacles that seem too overwhelming to overcome, look to God for vindication. Soak up his word. Seek his wisdom. Then carry on with his works. It is far easier said than done, but as Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 15:10; “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” We cannot go it alone. It is by the grace of our God we can carry on through our struggles.

Jesus was human. He endured unbelievable and undeserved ridicule and physical torture. He went through what many would term “hell on earth.” Now he is in heaven. And because of what he did for us, we can go there too…when our trials are over.

Nehemiah 4

Nehemiah 6