Leadership 101- Nehemiah Style: Someone to Uphold You in 2017
* Inspiration from this post came from Jonathan Josephs, the Ballantyne Campus Pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC (USA).
Isn’t it interesting how life works? What do I mean by this?... I mean, isn’t it interesting how one part of your life can be going so well- i.e. jobs, success, health, finances, free time BUT another part can be struggling or almost nonexistent- i.e. your relationships, your marriage, or your relationship with your kids? We certainly weren’t meant to always stay on the mountain. If life is going really well and smooth it won’t always stay like that. There’s no way that we’ll reach a sate of constant perfection this side of heaven due to a fallen world, but when one part of life is going well and another part isn’t, there are some practical life applications from the Father that we can use so that we don’t lose our joy, faith and hope.
“ So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Looking at Nehemiah, my favorite Bible character and one of the top three ones that I’m going to run to greet in Heaven is: Nehemiah! I want to grab of coffee with him and have a nice long chat. I wrote about Nehemiah last year and it’s fitting to write about him now. I love his leadership style, his resolve to not cower in the face of opposition- and how he went back to Jerusalem in 444 B.C. to rebuild the wall- after the Babylonians had taken the Israelites captive many years earlier.
Things were going well for Nehemiah in that God had selected him to head up rebuilding the city’s wall. What an honor and privilege. But with new levels in life come new devils. With job success meant that Nehemiah and the builders had opposition- the kind of opposition that threatened their lives in the form of: Sanballat, Tobiah and the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites. It’s in low, weak, and exposed areas of our lives that the enemy is really working to steal our joy, faith and hope.
Nehemiah could have cowered at their threats, gotten depressed at the fact that he had been tasked with such an extraordinary assignment, but then it seems like it was all falling a part.
How do you respond in life when one part is going well and another part isn’t? Do you cower, withdraw from people, eat more, stay at the office more instead of going home to be with your family, allow a hobby to overtake you, get angry and take it out on others? Or, do you reach out to someone, let them in and ask them to pray with you and uplift you. I’ll admit that I haven’t always done the ladder. I’m a “pull awayer,” where I try to sort out and process my challenges alone.
But, what did Nehemiah do in the face of opposition and threats in chapter 4 of Nehemiah? He said in verse 20: “When you hear the blast of the trumpet, rush to wherever it is sounding. Then our God will fight for us!”
We’re stronger in numbers. We’re stronger to face and overcome our challenges when we have people encouraging us, praying with us, and speaking life into us. I can’t overcome successful by being a “pull awayer.”
Jonathan Josephs, campus pastor at Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina states: “A lot of the time when it feels like the enemy keeps attacking us over and over again in the same places of lives, it’s because we haven’t done anything to notify someone. You’ve got to notify someone when the enemy is attacking you at the exposed places in your life- in the areas that aren’t going well.”
It’s when we have the strength and encouragement of another that God will also supply His supernatural strength for us to get through those ordeals and overcome. So, as 2016 finishes out and we start a New Year- God willing, and 2017 comes with its ups and downs, may we resolve to not cower. May we resolve to find that person who can uplift us while God also supernaturally will sustain and help us get through the challenges. If you don’t have someone in your life that can stand with you and strengthen you, it will be helpful to find someone and fast! Challenges come- that’s life, and I pray that you will have more highs than lows, but the enemy is working 24/7. He doesn’t take a coffee break, so you need someone to speak life into you on those 2017 low days when one part of your life may be going well and the other part isn’t.
Happy Friday!