Anchor Devotional
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Responding to Discouragement
“Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity.” Nehemiah 4:4
Satan uses a host of different voices to accuse and condemn God’s people. In the book of Nehemiah, two of those were Sanballat and Tobiah. These men had both the proximity and the influence to do serious damage to the morale of God’s people. They mocked the prospects of the builders—“Will they revive the stones?”—and the progress—“if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” (vv. 2-3)
But behind these taunts lay a deeper source of discouragement. Could the people trust the Lord, His Word, and His messenger, Nehemiah? Could they, like Noah, hold God’s promises by faith while the promise was as yet unseen? Were they really capable of such feats?
Thankfully, they did not need to be, nor do we. Just as Satan was a party to these discussions, so was the living God. It was to Him that the people cried out (v. 5). As a result, the people made remarkable progress on the wall, for they had a “mind to work” (v. 6). Friends, the Word that Satan seeks to undermine is the same Word that sustains us against his attacks.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
Nehemiah 4:1-6
INSIGHT
Let’s take refuge in God’s Word while we walk by faith. Never forget that all His promises are fulfilled in Christ.
THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
1 Samuel 20-21
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 12
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