http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy280/ICAdoral/Born%20for%20this%20DEVOTIONAL%20banner_zpsngjdzfbm.jpg

 

Thursday April 14, 2016

 

What ifs?

What if I stay in this relationship but things don’t change? I know this is not the right person for me, but what if no one else shows up? I know I should leave this job, but what if I don’t find another one? I know I should walk away, but what if I don’t get another chance? I know I should stay put, but what if I never get another opportunity?

 

Every person will face distractions when they decide to commit to doing something of value. Likewise, people committed to living out God’s divine purpose for their life will also face distractions. Our lives are full of distractions and the goal of every one of them is to get us to stop doing what is important to instead do something that is less important.

 

Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem decided that the most important thing they could do was to rebuild the fallen city walls. They made the decision, to no longer allow the city and the people who represented God to live in ruins and shame. However, no sooner did they start rebuilding that an avalanche of distractions came their way. Some of the distractions were disguised as threats, others as opportunities, and others in the form of false rumors. The final one however, showed up in the form of fear.

 

Nehemiah 6:10-14 NIV

10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.” 11 But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.

 

In previous occasions, Sanballat had attempted to distract the workers by mocking them and even by threatening them. When he saw that his schemes were not working, he decided to focus his attention on Nehemiah himself. He decided that the only thing left to do was to distract Nehemiah. Therefore, he decided to scare him into believing that an assassin was coming to kill him the goal being to stop Nehemiah from completing the project.

 

Someone once said, “If you don’t have something that you are willing to die for, then you don’t have anything worth living for.” This was the case for Nehemiah; his passion for God’s divine purpose surpassed his need to answer the “what if” questions of life. Whenever we decide to dedicate ourselves to living out God’s divine purpose, there will be plenty of unknowns and a lot of “what ifs”. The unknowns and the “what ifs” of life are fertile ground for developing fear.

 

When God calls you to do something, remember that He always finishes what He starts. Therefore, armed with this knowledge, do not allow fears to become a distraction. The Bible says that if God is for us, who can stand against us? So, when fears try to distract you, don’t ask “what if”, instead respond like Nehemiah:

 

Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!”