Day 360

Nehemiah 5:1-7:3, Revelation 18:1-17, Proverbs 31:10-20

It is sometimes very difficult to discern who is saying what and in fact what their motivation is. Both Nehemiah and John in these readings are given a message, from messengers, angels and prophets. Some are of God and some clearly aren’t. Nehemiah was discerning, he could tell that the prophets were false prophets, that the message was to trick and not to build up.

It can sometimes be hard for us to discern the messages as well, there are often so many voices and sometimes they say very different things. There are our church leaders and house group leaders, there are preachers on podcasts and preachers on DVD’s. There are books and blogs, all can give us very different messages as we try and grow deeper into God.

The Spirit though brings discernment and works within us to help us decipher the messages. Above all it is God through the Spirit that we should always pay the greatest attention to. When we focus on Him and come back to His word in the Bible, we get a much better picture of what He is trying to say.

It is not that long ago in our reading that we looked at the power of prayer in terms of spending time just listening to God. When the voices come in like they did for Nehemiah, it is always valuable to come to God in prayer and listen for what He is saying.

Take some time with God today.