Dealing with Opposition

I have been preaching through Nehemiah over the past few weeks and have just loved it. The book gives us a glimpse of how the Lord has lead Nehemiah back to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the wall around the city. He has approached the King and has been given the freedom to go ahead with his plans. The only problem is that he begins to face detractors. He is criticized, beat down by various lies, engulfed with accusations, but he still marched on.
Have you ever had this problem? Have you ever set your mind to a task and decided to move in a certain direction only to have those around be the first to offer a thousand reasons why you shouldn't proceed. People always seem to be there to tell you what not to do. Often your dreams and my dreams die at the hands of those standing up in judgement of these plans. You have a dream and set the plan but can't get anyone to buy in.
Nehemiah had plenty of people that wanted to stop him, but he was able to make through the storm and make the most of the dreams God had given him. The question for you and me is not if we will have opposition, but how will we respond to opposition when we face it. Nehemiah chose to pray, stay the course, and act with integrity. How will you respond.

Go back and read the book of Nehemiah. Take some life lessons from and allow God to some amazing work in your life and the lives of those around you.

Ask yourself these questions:

What is the vision God has given me?



What are the obstacles in my way?



How am I responding? How should you respond?



Are trusting God with your plans and the work he wants to do in and through you?

VISION

Are you living with vision? Do you live your life on point or do you live a distracted life? The reason I ask this is because most of us don't feel that we have a clue about the direction that God wants us to move in. We live our lives in such a way that we can so easily get off track. Many live in reactionary mode rather than being proactive about their life.
The point is that God has a plan and a purpose for you and for me. We can live on focus because God will give us an opportunity to live out the life He has in fact called us to and made us for.

God wants you to have vision so you can make the most of your life.
Ask yourself these questions:

What is my experience? (the good, they bad and the ugly) Basically all of your life experience.

What are my desires? (this is what you love and enjoy)

What is God up to in my life right now? This means that you are actively seeking Him daily.
It is hard to see a pattern when you are not engaging Him.

What is keeping me from doing what God is calling me to do? Obedience is always the right decision to make!

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Proverbs 29:18

Stop Before You Start

We spend all of our time running around in a frenzy most of the time. If we don't slow down, we will never make the most of our lives. God wants to do something in our lives that is truly amazing and there is no doubt we must hear from him so that we can follow him in obedience. The challenge for us is to press the pause button or stop our lives long enough to hear from the Lord. If we don't stop we will be pressed by all the other influences in our world. May you take some time regularly to engage the Lord.

Remember: We must stop before we start and when we do:

We are more like our heavenly Father.

We start we gain a new perspective on our life.

We are refreshed and gain new energy for the responsibilities God has given us.

We are able to remember how God has been faithful to us in the past.

We place God in his proper role - overall!

We learn to trust God rather than our effort.

Further Reading:
Genesis 2:1-3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15