Dave’s Monday Blast – January 25, 2021

From last week: “And now these three remain: faith, HOPE, and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13). Humankind has always struggled with the plague of discouragement; it is one of Satan’s favorite tools to prevent us from being effective Kingdom servants. Discouragement is a disease; a universal, repeating, contagious, circumstantial and deadly disease. Everyone has contracted this disease. Last week we cited a variety of examples from the Word supporting this reality.

However, this is not how the Lord intended for us to live. There is a cure, a pathway that leads us away from discouragement, a pathway to HOPE. It is an INTENTIONAL process.

Nehemiah teaches us how to replace discouragement with HOPE:

1. Refresh your SPIRIT . “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands.” (Nehemiah 1:4 – 5). Take your eyes off the circumstances and place them upon God. If it takes days to keep your focus upon Him…it is time well spent.

2. Refocus ON THE FUTURE.  “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.'” (Nehemiah 2:19 -20) Present discouragement is a result of looking back. We are admonished to “press on…”

3. Refuse to GIVE UP. In spite of…

• Fatigue (Nehemiah 4:10) “the strength of the laborers is giving out..”
• Failure (Nehemiah 4:10) “we cannot rebuild the wall!”
• Frustration (Nehemiah 4:10) “…and there is so much rubble…”
• Fear (Nehemiah 4:11) “Also our enemies said, ‘Before they know it or see us…we will kill them and put an end to their work!'” “So we continued to work…” (Nehemiah 4:21)  I just love this statement of courageous faith!

4. Remember WHAT’S IMPORTANT. “After I looked over I stood up and I said to the nobles and the officials the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid! Remember the Lord is great and awesome. Fight for your brothers and your daughters and your homes.'” (Nehemiah 4:14).  Remember who God is, Fight for His cause, Expect Great results.

Here is the result of following the pathway to HOPE: “So the wall was completed…in fifty- two days (impossible). When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” (Nehemiah 6:16).