Nehemiah chapter 6 contains the second account of opposition to the work on the wall. Nehemiah’s response to that opposition is a great model for all of us in the good work we are doing for the kingdom of Christ.
When you know that you are doing the good work of God no distraction can pull you down.
I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.
When you know that you are doing the good work of God, it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks or says about you.
“No such things as you say have been done,
for you are inventing them out of your own mind.”
But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
When you know that you are doing the work of God, you will see & get through the betrayal of false friends.
Should a man like me run away?
Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life?
I will not go!
Nehemiah persisted through opposition and completed the wall in 52 days. What a nation could not do in 100 years, God did in less than two months through one person of faith!
His heroic leadership is a foreshadowing of the leadership of the one to come: Christ the Savior who persisted through temptation, distraction and false accusations to complete the good work God had sent him to do.
When you understand the work that has already been finished for you, your faith will surge with unstoppable conviction.
Tom Brown is the planting pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Wichita. Tom and his wife, Mandy, have worked together in ministry for 18 years and have four children. More about Pastor Tom Brown