Discouragement

8/12/2011 9:10:35 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  Discouragement

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 4:10

                Message of the verse:  “10  Thus in Judah it was said, "The strength of the burden bearers is failing, Yet there is much rubbish; And we ourselves are unable To rebuild the wall.’”

                “10  But soon word was going around in Judah, The builders are pooped, the rubbish piles up; We’re in over our heads, we can’t build this wall” (Message).

                Today’s SD is on discouragement, which is another one of the devices that Satan will use to stop the work on the wall.  He had used this tactic early in the life of the nation of Israel when discouragement from ten of the spies permeated the camp of Israel and caused the entire nation to spend the next forty years wandering around in the wilderness until all of that generation of Israel died off. 

                There were some from the tribe of Judah who became discouraged, probably from the words spoken to them by Sanballat and his friends, yet there was more going on here than just those discouraging works spoken to their enemies.  A closer look at a couple of passages in the book of Nehemiah shows that there were two other factors that could have been taking place.  According to Nehemiah 6:17-19 there was some inside things going on that could have caused this problem of discouragement for Sanballat was actually married to one of the nobles of Judah daughters and therefore there was a conspiracy going on.  When you look into chapter thirteen and verses fifteen through twenty-two you will find that the love of money was going on by some of the people of Israel who were not wholly committed to the Lord.  Not being wholly committed to the Lord was at the root of what was going on for if all of Israel would have been wholly committed to the Lord at Kadesh-Barnea then they would not have had to walk around the wilderness for forty years.  If these Jews would have been wholly committed to the Lord then they would not have allowed a marriage to a foreigner to happen.  And if they would have been wholly committed to the Lord they would have remembered the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  If I am honest with myself then I will have to admit that I have been discouraged in my life in times past, and probably the reason is that I have not been wholly committed to the Lord.  I suppose that a lack of patience could also be a reason that I have not always been wholly committed to the Lord and thus been discouraged in the past.  Discouragement is a key weapon in the arsenal of Satan and I must be on the lookout for it in my life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to learn contentment for when I am content I am wholly committed to the Lord and will not become discouraged.

8/12/2011 9:56:58 AM