Over the last few weeks, the preacher at my church has been doing his stuff from the lesser known book of Nehemiah. A book about a guy who gets compelled to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and becomes very very focused on his mission.
Well, in this story, there are of course, enemies, and detractors. Those detractors constantly beat on him with words, taunts, threats, and other mischief. Just think about them like the Occupy movement. But instead of killing the grass at your local courthouse, consider if those guys where camped, well, on you. And the fact is, we all have detractors that are camped on us. It may not be a person, it may be an idea, or a habit, or thought pattern, or behavior. But there is it is day after day, wearing you down.
And so, during his spiel last Sunday my eyes wandered over to this one verse in Nehemiah, as he responds to an advance from his detractors.
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” Nehemiah 6:9 New International Version (NIV)
Do you ever feel like that? Do you ever feel like those detractors our hoping that you will get too weak and not complete your task? Well maybe today it’s time to borrow Nehemiah’s prayer.
“Now strengthen my hands.”