Whatever the race is that you are running for God, however many times you have been knocked down, the challenge here is get back up. Be among those who refuse to accept defeat.

Hanging on a wall in an office was a sign that read: “A PRAYER TO BE SAID WHEN THE WORLD HAS GOTTEN YOU DOWN AND YOU FEEL ROTTEN AND YOU’RE TOO DOGGONE TIRED TO PRAY AND YOU’RE IN A BIG HURRY AND BESIDES. YOU’RE MAD AT EVERYBODY… help!” Today, in our study of Nehemiah we encounter a group of people whom the world has gotten down, who feel rotten, who were probably too doggone tired to pray, and were probably plenty mad. It is Nehemiah’s ragtag band of Israelites who had taken on the huge task of rebuilding the city wall. They have successfully resisted opposition enough to get the wall to half its necessary height. But discouragement sets in. This episode shows how Nehemiah overcame the discouragement of his people.  The narrative in the fourth chapter of Nehemiah continues:

In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand (vs 10-23).

Why Life is Full of Pain and Difficulty

Let’s review why it is that life is so full of pain, trials, and opposition. We face conflict on three different battlefields:

• We struggle with our own sinful nature.
• We struggle with the world that opposes Christ
• We struggle with Satan and the powers of darkness.

Let’s dig a little deeper.  This struggle with our sinful nature alone would be enough to discourage and exhaust anybody. That sinful nature has invaded our mind, emotions, and will. Ephesians 4:17-18 says we must struggle and fight just to think correctly. “So I tell you this and insist on it in the Lord that you must no longer live as the gentiles do in the futility of their thinking they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” That’s just our thinking.

Our feelings get all wrapped up in the wrong things too. “Do not love the world or anything in the world” writes John. Our lives can only be healthy and whole when we delight in the Lord—when he is the center of our affections. God designed life to work only when our loves are ordered correctly and for the affections of our heart to be focused on him and not spill over that channel into destructive alluring cesspools.

Our sinful nature also waits at the door to take captive our will the moment we give it a chance. James says “but each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed.” Then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin. So, we must battle a sinful nature that invades our whole being.

We also must battle the world. Jesus tells his followers, “If the world hates you keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (Jn 15:18-19). The “world” is not God’s material creation; it is the ungodly world system that opposes God. I know a teacher who recently instinctively slapped the hand of a boy who was refusing to obey her and about to cause damage in the middle of a music classroom full of kids. She was worried afterward about getting in trouble for this instinctive action, which the child deserved. Proverbs 13:24 says, “He who spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” That truth runs contrary to the world’s system that sees any kind of safe physical punishment like slapping the hand or spanking a child as abuse. It is not. It is inflicting temporary pain on a safe part of a child’s body to teach a child to self-regulate so the child will not be much more seriously harm later in life. In summary, we struggle with the world because its ways are opposite to God’s ways.

We also struggle with life in this world because of the effect sin has had on the world as I mentioned last week. In Genesis 3:16-19, to the woman God said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” Painful conflict in the family and in marriage happens. A wife has an instinctive resistance to her husband, and he is instinctively prone to use his leadership position selfishly. To Adam God said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree…cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you…by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food. That is the biblical basis, by the way, for Murphy’s Law.

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