Pray for Strength

“For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.” (Ne 6:9 AV)

Nehemiah is one of my favorite books.  In Bible college, we studied Nehemiah for the purpose of gleaning leadership principles.  This study was a great study.  Nehemiah was a food taster for a pagan king back in Shushan.  He got wind of the condition of the walls of Jerusalem and the consequent persecution of the Jews who had returned to rebuild and use the temple.  It discouraged him enough to ask leave of the king to return and rebuild the walls of the city of God.  His request was at the peril of his life.  If the king did not appreciate the cause for Nehemiah’s sad countenance, he would have been permanently terminated!  But, the LORD was good and softened the heart of the king.  Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem and governed the city, repairing and rebuilding the city walls.  This did not come without great challenge and discouragement.  The heathen that had taken up the land since Judah was carried away to Babylon was his greatest enemy.  They did everything to discourage the work.  From false accusations sent back to the king to the children of Judah and Israel falling back into sin, to threats on his life.  He faced it all.  Through it all, he kept his focus and finished the work just shy of three months.  The above prayer may have been the prayer that gave him the ability to see his work to the end.  He asks the LORD to strengthen his hand to the work and not allow outside influences to discourage him.

Never in my almost forty years of salvation have I witnessed such discouraging times.  And it will only get worse.  COVID-19 has, in effect, caused everything to grind to a stand-still.  This includes the great commission.  It shouldn’t!  There is no reason we cannot reach others with the gospel electronically.  There is no reason we cannot share the gospel with our immediate neighbors.  We can still get out and shop.  There are people we meet every day.  The only difference is we are required to wear a face covering.  That is the only difference.  Conversations can still be had.  Tracts can still be shared.  There is no reason why the church should be in slumber waiting for things to get back to the way they were.  They may never return.  We see insurrectionists attempting to cause such chaos it drives fear into the hearts of good people.  Anger, hate, and rebellion reign unabated in our largest cities.  I am waiting for the day it comes closer to home.  Attendance in our services is down by almost fifty percent because people are afraid of what they cannot control.  Unemployment is improving, but whole business sectors have permanently shut down.  As far as the church goes, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop.  We saw the government close us down over a virus.  Now, if the administration changes, we will have an adversary as the head of our nation and it is a matter of time before they come more directly for the church.  It will happen over the politicization of moral issues.  Abortion is not a political issue.  It is a moral issue.  Gay marriage is not a political issue.  It is a moral issue.  Laws are coming to make it illegal for a not-for-profit that will make it virtually impossible to preach anything substantive from the word of God.  Unless we preach what the government will permit, we will be arrested for hate crimes.  We will lose control over the standards for membership.  We will be fined for not complying with the demands of an anti-Christian government.  These times are coming.

But, there is still work to do.  We can, and will be, discouraged.  That is normal.  That is expected.  What we cannot do is to retreat in our shell and wish for the day.  We cannot hunker down and merely survive.  The wall had to be built.  It was the means by which the LORD provided protection from that source of all the discouragement Nehemiah faced.  The church is that provision which is the protection from the source which causes all our discouragement.  Notice something rather interesting in the passage above.  Notice the motive of those who are causing the people of God to fear.  They don’t want to destroy them.  They simply want them to be discouraged in the work.  If they can spread enough fear, then the work will cease.  This is exactly what we see today.  Fear and anxiety reign.  It is the emotion of the day.  The answer is faith and dependence upon God.  Nehemiah is asking for one thing.  He is not asking, at least in this prayer, for the LORD to take away the source of discouragement.  He will do that at other times.  What he is asking for in the here and now is for strength.  Strength to keep his focus and to finish what the LORD has called him to do.  This is what we need to do right now!  We need to pray the LORD to strengthen our hands for the work lest the work crumbles under neglect.