Today’s Scriptures
Nehemiah 1:1-4; 2:17-20; 4:1-15; 6:14-16
Proverbs 7:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength. (NLT)
It’s time to live like we trust in the Lord and defeat the monsters under the bed that tell us God’s gone AWOL.
Let’s move from DISCOURAGEMENT to ENCOURAGEMENT with COURAGE empowered by confidence in Jesus.
READ TOGETHER:
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah.Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the [a]capitol,
2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, and [b]some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”
4 When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
—Nehemiah 1:1-4
17 Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.”
18 I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work.
—Nehemiah 2:17-18
1. Know your
Joshua 1:9b … be strong and courageous! DO not tremble or be dismayed (discouraged), for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
2. Know your
READ TOGETHER
19 But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite [f]official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
20 So I answered them and said to them, “The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem.”
—Nehemiah 2:19-20
Think on this… If God allows the worst to happen, would I still trust Him and worship Him?
3.
READ TOGETHER
1 Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.
2 He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”
3 Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building—if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”
4 Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity.
5 Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.
6 So we built the wall and the whole wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
7 Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry.
8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.
9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.
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.”
11 Our enemies said, “They will not know or see until we come among them, kill them and put a stop to the work.”
12 When the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times, “They will come up against us from every place where you may turn,”
13 then I stationed men in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, the exposed places, and I stationed the people in families with their swords, spears and bows.
14 When I saw their fear, I rose and spoke to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people: “Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses.”
—Nehemiah 4:1-14
4.
READ TOGETHER
15 When our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.
—Nehemiah 4:15
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
16 When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
—Nehemiah 6:15-16
2. Discuss in a Life Group
DISCUSS:
How well are you doing being able to fend off discouragement during this pandemic? What helps you and what hurts you?
Discuss how being shackled in discouragement compares to the rubble and ruins of the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah.
Explain what our purpose is as followers of Jesus during this pandemic.
How important is it that we quickly identify our enemy? Why?
DIscuss ways that can help you stay “on purpose” when the monster of discouragement is present.
A key in defeating the enemy is found in Nehmiah 4:14. What is it?
3. Pray Together
Pray for each other and record any prayer requests here.