Are you discouraged? [2]

Memory Verse: Nehemiah 4:1- “Then Judah said,The strength of the laborers is failing, and there isso much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.”

The Word for Today devotional by United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) says

Cause number two: Frustration. The Jews were building a new wall, but old, broken rocks were strewn everywhere, along with dirt and dried-out mortar. When they looked at ‘so much rubbish’, they became discouraged and lost sight of their goal.

There was so much junk in their lives they did not know how to get on with the real business of living. Any time you undertake an important project there will be rubbish to remove, and sometimes it gets frustrating.

You cannot avoid this, but you can learn what to do with it so you do not give up on your plan. What is the ‘rubbish’ in your life? Trivial things that waste your time, consume your energy, and keep you from becoming all you want to be?

Things that keep you from doing what is most important, like building a relationship with your spouse and children, or being active in your area of giftedness at church? The rubbish in life is those things that get in your way: the interruptions that keep you from accomplishing your goals. And these are the things you need to deal with.

In other words, you need to take out the rubbish! Nobody else is going to do it for you. God won’t, and you can’t ‘pray it away’.

God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise and said, ‘Take care of it.’ It is in maintaining the blessings God has given you that you learn the difference between what’s important in life and what’s not. And that’s a lesson you’ll keep learning over and over.