Discouraging questions

❓ Discouraging questions  ❓

and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “ What are those feeble Jews doing?

Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble —burned as they are?”

Nehemiah 4:2

Sanballat and Tobiah sought to bring the discouragement through criticism. Discouragement is such a powerful weapon because it is somewhat the opposite of faith.

In verse 2, Sanballat asks five questions which would discourage the Jews.

We know that people are trying to discourage us. We try to stand firm. Yet we fall! Why?

Because there is some small amount of truth in it!

Where faith believes God and His love and promises. Discouragement looks for and believes the worst - and tends to pretty much forget about who God is and what He has promised to do.

Analogy

Sanballat and Tobiah had no authority to actually stop the work. All they could do was to discourage the Jews into stopping.

In our life, Satan has no authority to stop the good work that God has started in our life . But he can discourage us. 

Incident 

A few days back, I met a young girl - 17 or 18 years. She had pimples all over her face. She tried so many treatments for the past four years but nothing has worked. Now, the mother(someone I know very well) has surrendered it to God and now there is some improvement. She was feeling so dull!

She told me, "Akka, whenever I enter the church, many people ask me so many questions about my face. I enter the church happily but as soon as I hear the questions, I become so discouraged akka". My heart went out to her. As a young girl, I was also in a very similar situation, but God gave me a great deliverance. I shared my testimony with her and encouraged her.

❓Are we asking questions that would discourage others? 😔

❓Are we making others doubt the plans God has for their life? 🤔

❓Are we putting stumbling blocks in their path of Spiritual growth? 

❓Are we taking away smiles from happy faces? 😶

❓Are we robbing the peace of others? 😢

May we use uplifting words and encourage those around us!