Shalom and welcome to another episode of Living Supernaturally. Through our meditation this last week, we have been looking at the theme of encouragement. We have looked at why encouragement is important. We saw a few aspects of how encouragement prevents spiritual hardening, it builds each other up and today, we look at how encouragement can direct others to the Lord. One of the examples that we see in scripture is Nehemiah. When we read through the book of Nehemiah, we see he was a man that God raised up to accomplish a specific task which was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The rebuilding work took place after the Jews had returned from their Babylonian captivity. In the midst of this and despite all these efforts, they faced plenty of opposition. There was a lot of challenges they faced as they were rebuilding the wall. The scheme of the opponents against the Jews were mainly criticism, the words they used, the discouragement that the opponents bought about. We read through that account that Nehemiah encouraged the people. Let’s read scripture from Nehemiah chapter 4, verse 14, ‘And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”’ Here we read that Nehemiah encouraged the people to not lose heart and how does he do it? He directed them to the Lord; he points them to the Lord. He says, remember the Lord in verse 14. If you read through below in verse 20, he says, ‘our Lord will fight for us.’ So, he moves the people to look at God, to direct their faces to God in the midst of that opposition. So, when they were faced with that opposition and potential danger, Nehemiah’s immediate encouragement was to remember the Lord who was great and awesome. He encourages them to not look at their problem but look at the God who was great and bigger than them. In the midst of the fear that may have, he redirects their attention into the power and might of who God is. By doing so, he was anchoring their confidence and strength in God. Nehemiah’s leadership was just not a physical leadership but also about a spiritual revival. We see later that he brings the people in worship to God. His dedication was to prayer the reliance on the promises of God and his commitment to justice and his reverence to God’s word, all depicts of how his interaction, his relationship with God and through that how he encouraged the people to direct their lives to God. What is our takeaway from Nehemiah’s encouragement? No matter what people are going through, that we point/ direct others to the Lord, showing and helping them remember that God is great and awesome and mighty. As we encourage them, making sure that their faith is built up in God. Let’s pray together, Heavenly Father, in our encouragement to people, may we show them who you are, your greatness, your wonder, your might and your power. May we move them away from their natural strength into seeking supernatural strength from you, help us to do that, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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