How To Handle Hindrances

If the devil can’t talk you into not serving God, he’ll try to scare you out of serving God. When Sanballat and Co. see that Nehemiah won’t negotiate, they go to plan B: intimidate. He sends a letter to Nehemiah, accusing him and his workers of rebelling against the king, and promising that if Nehemiah doesn’t meet with him, he will report this rebellion to the king.

This was a serious threat. Only a few years earlier, the Persian king had stopped reconstruction on the walls of Jerusalem for this very same reason. Sanballat’s letter could not only hinder the work of God, but could stop the work completely. How can Nehemiah respond to this hindrance of intimidation? He sends back a response: Dear Sanballat- your losing your marbles! Everybody knows what’s going on here in Jerusalem! The king knows we’re not trying to start a rebellion! He’s the one who sent me here! Put a sock in it! You can’t scare me into quitting my work for the Lord!

I like Nehemiah’s courage and boldness. He refuses to be intimidated by the devil. How about you? Does the devil ever try to hinder you with intimidation?

You can’t do this for the Lord! You’re not smart enough/talented enough/strong enough/good enough! If you try to serve the Lord, you’re just going to fall flat on your face and make a fool of yourself! Do you really want to risk losing your friends by doing what God says to do? You’ll never be able to do what God is asking you to do—it’s too hard for someone as weak as you are.

Your enemy will use every trick in his book to hinder you from serving the Lord by intimidating you with fear, worry and doubt. How do you keep from being intimidated? Quote the words of

Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Don’t ever let the devil hinder you with intimidation. When he tells you how small and weak you are, agree with him, but then remind him of how great and powerful the Lord Who lives in you is!

1 John 4:4 …He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

Still another key to handling hindrances is

3. Don’t fall prey to elimination. (v. 10-13)

Notice how the conspiracy to hinder Nehemiah begins to widen, now including Shemaiah, who may been a false prophet and priest, and a false prophetess named Noadiah (v. 14). They pretend to be on Nehemiah’s side, and tell him he is marked out for assassination. Shemaiah suggests Nehemiah hide in the Temple to escape this plot. There is only one problem with this plan: by God’s law, only the priests are allowed in the Temple, and Nehemiah is not a priest. Once again Nehemiah realizes their plan is …that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me. (v. 13.) They want to discredit Nehemiah before his own people, and before God by tripping him up in sin, and eliminating him from the scene.