How Nehemiah Helps the Discouraged

A few years ago, my late husband lost his job, then fell ill. I had to financially support our family for some time. As I experienced bouts of discouragement, I recalled Peter’s words: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). So I stayed in the Word, and … Continue reading →

2017 Day 266 – The Good Works Plan

Ephesians 2 includes such an awesome summary of the gift of faith. Twice it says “by grace you have been saved” (vs. 5, 8). And with that salvation, God’s rich mercy: Made us alive with Christ (vs.5) Raised us with him Seated us with him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ Shows us his … Continue reading →

2017 Day 253 – Weary and Weak

I am weak and weary. I’ve been struggling with discouragement over the last month or so. In fact, I did a whole series on my discouragement and finding encouragement, starting here. In the last few weeks, I began to rise out of the discouragement, only to find I felt weary. Just tired of the fight. … Continue reading →

2017 Day 225 – Dis Discouragement!

Man, the lessons from Nehemiah never end! This is the sixth installment in a series on how to deal with discouragement. The last blog on the topic is here (and it has links to the other blogs). I was REALLY discouraged a couple of weekends ago. In a hole. And Ezra and Nehemiah provide many … Continue reading →

2017 Day 224 – More on Dealing with Discouragement

This is my fourth installment on dealing with discouragement from Ezra and Nehemiah. See the others here, here, here, and here. Sanballat and company once again “jeer” at the Jews (Nehemiah 4:1), to discourage them from building the wall. What does Nehemiah do to encourge the people? He prays – the same antidote to discouragement … Continue reading →

2017 Day 223 – Facing Discouragement

I’m doing a little series on how to face discouragement – based on the books Ezra and Nehemiah. My first three blogs on the subject are here, here, and here. The scripture – and my blog – got away from the subject, but the book of Nehemiah brings us back to it. The returned exiles … Continue reading →

2017 Day 220 – enCourage

So I’m in a sort of a “series” about how God encourages his people to keep going in the face of discouragement. I blogged about my recent deep discouragement two days ago. And I shared a lesson in yesterday’s blog about how to keep moving forward in the face of discouragement. These are lessons from … Continue reading →

2017 Day 219 – Fighting Discouragement

Wow. It’s been building for a few days, but Saturday, I sank deeply into discouragement. It was awful. I could NOT think of one good thing about myself. I was NOT fun to be around. At all. The feelings continued yesterday, but not quite as bad. I sensed that while circumstances and lack of rest … Continue reading →

2017 Day 218 – Discouragement

King Cyrus of Persia decides to send a remnant of Israel (mostly Judah and Benjamin) back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple of the Lord. That’s what the book of Ezra’s about. Enemies of Israel don’t want them to build. They worry about the power the people will have if they rebuild the temple and … Continue reading →