52 Days. Day 48, Your Obedience to God is Bigger Than Your Reputation.

Nehemiah 6:5-7 (NKJV) 5 “Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it [was] written: It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says, [that] you and the Jews plan to rebel; therefore, according to these rumors, you are rebuilding the wall, that you may be their king. 7 And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, “[There is] a king in Judah!” Now these matters will be reported to the king. So come, therefore, and let us consult together.” Doing the will of God and being misunderstood often go hand in hand. And there are few things which will trouble us more than someone questioning our motives and impugning our reputation. It’s at that moment that we can become distracted and start trying to defend ourselves, and spend all our energy chasing these lies and misinformation. Nehemiah kept his eyes on the prize; and so must we! Our Lord dealt with these types of attacks. The church has had to deal with these types of attacks. In today’s world, they (traditional religious groups) impugn us as not being “orthodox” because of our strong stand on One God, and especially baptism in Jesus Name. And thus, they will say we are a “cult.” They will say that we trust “works” to be saved because of our strong stand on separation (holiness of lifestyle). We can spend all of our time and energy chasing those foolish things, or we can stay focused and committed to obeying God’s Word above all else (Acts 5:29). Many have compromised their stand because they got more concerned about what others were saying about them, than obeying the Truth.