Daily Bible Reading - Nehemiah 4, Hosea 14, 1 Thessalonians 3-4
Resistance
Resistance = The act of resisting, opposing or withstanding.
I have learned over my few short years that as a Christian there are two main types of resistance. Resistance from God when we are not walking according to His way and resistance from those that oppose God when we are walking his way.
Hosea 14:9 says, "... the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them". this verse is telling us that as we live upright we walk continually in the ways of the Lord and there is great blessings that come with that. If we do not walk as upright than we are resisted by God and we end up stumbling and falling. What we need to understand is that this resistance by God is because He is a good God and He allows us to stumble when we are not walking with Him in the hopes that we might turn back towards Him. There is an old saying that says, "we can choose to do right or wrong but we never have the right to choose wrong". In other words there are not benefits to choosing the wrong thing although we can choose wrong if we want. If we choose to do wrong, there is resistance though and this resistance is good because it points us back to God.
I have experienced this type of resistance in my life in the times where I chose to do my own thing rather than God's. However, in this season of my life as a church planter I often find myself in the type of resistance that the Jews did in Nehemiah 4. In this passage Nehemiah is rallying the Jews to rebuild the wall and doing the work that God has called him to. In the process of this the enemy of the Jews starts to taunt them and resist them. It says in Nehemiah 4:8, that the enemy "all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it." As the enemy looked at the people who were walking in God's way they were scared because they saw that the city was being rebuilt.
As we have been building a church in the city we live in we have been experiencing resistance from the culture and from people. What I realize today as I read Nehemiah 4, is that the only time the enemy resists you is when you are being effective in God's plans. If the enemy looks at you and your life and sees that you are being ineffective with your time and passions than He is not going to come and try and stop you because there is nothing to stop. However, when you begin to feel resistance this should not discourage you. Be encouraged because the enemy has taken notice of you and realizes that if He does not come in and create confusion you will rebuild the city God has called you to rebuild and that you will become a powerful influence in culture.
My word to you today is be encouraged and stand strong in God! If you are feeling resistance it is either God desiring you to get back on the right path because He loves you or it is the enemy because you are walking in God's path and he is scared of you. Look at your life today, take some time to talk to God and see what kind of resistance you are facing. Either get on track with God or keep building what you are building because the enemy is scared.
For Urban, be encouraged today for we are impacting this culture and we are rebuilding this city one person (stone) at a time.
Tomorrows Bible Reading - Nehemiah 5-6, Joel 1, 1 Thessalonians 5
Dream Big
Ben
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
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1 comment:
One at a time. That's all we can do.
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