Last week, in The Nehemiah Solutions, Part 3, we are reminded that the practical solution to the problem of disobedience to God is simply outrage, followed by a cry for purity in all that we do. But disobedience wasn;t Nehemiah’s only hurdle. In fact, as you read the book, you will note distraction upon distraction.
Doesn’t that sound familiar? I mean, I know I could be more productive if I didn’t get so distracted. Distraction affects my productivity at work and at home, it affects my social engagements and even my stress management activities. But perhaps most importantly, it affects my spiritual productivity. It affects my personal prayer time, my focus on any God-given task and my ability to positively impact others for the Lord!
Where do these distractions come from?
From…well…just about everywhere! And the devil uses these distractions to keep me from doing God’s Work! I can’t count how many times I’ve been convicted to do something for someone on any given day, only to get to the end of the day without doing it. And when I look back to seek the reason I didn’t do it, it’s because something came up, or I forgot, or I hadn’t wanted to stray from my “to-do” list long enough to do the God-given task.
After long contemplation, I’ve come to the conclusion that my problem is two-fold:
1. Sometimes I don’t recognize the distraction for what it is: something orchestrated by the devil to keep me from being productive for the Lord. I don’t see that whatever is thrown my way IS a distraction! I simply see it as something that must be dealt with instead of what it is distracting me from!
2. Sometimes I recognize the distraction, but I am simply unable to do anything about it.
Nehemiah to the rescue.
Our friend Nehemiah knew all about dealing with distraction. When he returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls, he met up with distraction from all sides, beginning with the moment he made his purpose in Jerusalem known: “But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?'” (Neh 2:19 NKJV)
Some would say the devil was trying to discourage Nehemiah, and that is certainly one of the many purposes that distraction serves. But Nehemiah saw it for what it was: A simple distraction, and he knew what to do about it: “So I answered them, and said to them, ‘The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.'” (Neh 2:20, NKJV)
Another recorded distraction went like this: “But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious…And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, ‘What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish–stones that are burned?’ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, ‘Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.'” (Neh 4:1-3, NKJV).
You and I would call that “mockery”, but mockery is also one of many forms of distraction. Nehemiah didn’t get caught up in it. Instead, he saw it for what it was: A simple distraction. He said, “‘Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads…for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.’ So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height…” (Neh 4:4-6, NKJV).
Time and time again the book of Nehemiah records that Nehemiah encouraged the people to not be deterred by distraction but to keep focussed on the task at hand. Even when there was fear of physical combat, Nehemiah didn’t stop the builders from building. Instead, he had the people pray, and he set a watch:
“…and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.” (Neh 4:7-9, NKJV)
In another place, it is recorded: “Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings…and [I] arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, ‘Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.'” (Neh 4:13-14, NKJV)
Nehemiah was living out the sound advice that comes to us centuries later from the writer of the book of Hebrews: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” (Heb 12:1-2, NKJV)
That, friends, is how to deal with the distractions the devil throws our way. We need, first, to recognize the distraction for what it is, and then we need to give it to God and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus as we continue with the task at hand.
Thank you, Nehemiah, for the valuable tip on how to deal with the distractions that the devil WILL throw our way when we set out to do God’s work!
Is there anything we can learn from Nehemiah about the various problems that arise with doing God’s will? Join us next The Nehemiah Solutions, Part 5: By My House.
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.
(To access the rest of this mini-series, please click here.)