Christian Devotional – July 3, 2017

Nehemiah maintained single-minded focus. As we look at the next section in Nehemiah chapter 2, we look through verses 9 through 16 and we see that even though Nehemiah was coming with a great plan, he still was facing opposition. He has enemies and people who do not want to see him succeed. More than that, he didn’t even tell the people why he was there at first. He went out and did his surveying alone and in secret. Why? Nehemiah didn’t want anyone to distract him by telling him how impossible the task was or how hard things would be. He didn’t want anybody to get in his way. He knew what God had directed him to do. He knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt and the only reason that he was out surveying was so that he could better plan how to do what God had told him, not to determine whether or not God had told him to do it. He was already one hundred percent sure that he was supposed to do this.

When we’ve been given direction by God, do we do it? Do we allow other people to influence us against God’s plan? Do we try to get other people’s opinions or approval before we begin? Do we allow ourselves to become distracted by the naysayers and those who would stand in our way? God has given us purpose and plan. That is more than enough to understand that that’s exactly what we should be doing, we just need to find the single-minded focus to ensure that we’re going to go get it done. What are we getting done today?