Read Nehemiah 6:1-16
“…I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”—Nehemiah 6:3
After hearing Jerusalem laid in waste after the Babylonian invasion, Nehemiah, cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, requested and received permission from the king to rebuild the city. Nehemiah commenced the work by first repairing the walls of the city.
As project leader, Nehemiah became the target of the enemy’s various tactics to stop the work: ridicule, threats, slander, treachery, even false prophecies. As those tactics failed, and seeing the wall nearly rebuilt, Sanballat and Geshem called for Nehemiah to come meet them in a distant village. Nehemiah rebuffs them and asks why leave from performing his great work to come down to them?
It’s the enemy’s job to distract us from our purpose. He uses every scheme possible to achieve his objective. Like a magician, he uses sleight of hand to gain our attention while he manipulates the situation elsewhere. He knows a distracted disciple is an easier prey and makes for an ineffective witness to the world.
Our response is to remain focused by being assured whatever work God has assigned us to do is “a great work.” Not because it’s public work or a position of leadership, but because it’s God ordained work, which we’ve confirmed by seeking God’s guidance and direction (Proverbs 3:5-7).
Like Nehemiah, we must remain single-minded in our work and stay on the wall. When we lose our focus and become fixated on the antics of the enemy, we endanger ourselves and we put at jeopardy the very work God has assigned us. As Nehemiah did, we must pray for and then apply God-given wisdom, courage and resolve to concentrate on God’s plan, and not be distracted by the enemy.
Stay focused, stay on task. Too much is at stake and too many people are depending on you doing what God has called you to do!
“That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.” —Ephesians 4:14-15
These days we are all too familiar with the word “Multitasking” when one interviews or applies for a job interviwers often ask, ‘How are you at priortizing your work” most will say it’s a matter of priority. That which needs the most or most important. What ever the goal in ones life should be his/or hers priority accordinly. Doing works that benefits the masses is a good work and should take priority above all else. Seeing past our own ambitions is difficult at times but our lives and inner peace should always be first. That house made eternal within the human spirit.