When Nehemiah and his team was mocked and ridiculed by their enemies, Nehemiah responded in faith not fear and believed that God is committed to their success. Praise God, He fights for His people and gives them success!

God is committed to your success as a team to do His will because: (1) As His image bearers, we are carrying His “Brand”. God gives us success to safeguard His own reputation. He saves, shapes and sanctifies us for His name sake. (Ps 106:8) (2) We are His children and you imagine what good and loving parent wouldn’t do for their children. (Matt 7:11; Lk 11:13)

In the process of achieving success God allows failures in our life to teach us valuable lessons. We can learn a great deal from our failures if we acknowledge its teaching potential. We must commit to learning, growing, and changing as a result of it. Through a wrong decision a manager who had just caused millions of dollars of losses to his company tendered in his resignation. The CEO refused to accept his resignation and said, “We cannot let you go after we had just spent millions of dollars on you to learn this valuable lesson!”

Thomas Edison said, “I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” He was often ridiculed for his perseverance, he engaged in some 1,000 experiments before being successful with his incandescent light bulb experiment in 1879. He said, “I haven’t failed. I have found 1,000 ways that don’t work.” When you are on God’s side, that is when you are at the center of His will, He will grant you success if you persist.

Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for committing to our success as a team when we are totally aligned with your will. Please help me to persevere until your plan and purpose is accomplished in my life. Amen.

Before we go, take a look at the questions below:

1. What do Nehemiah and Edison have in common in terms of their attitudes towards ridicule and failure? Have you had similar experiences?

2. Why does God allow His children to experience failure? What benefits does failure have on our faith and growth?

3. As Christians, how do we understand "success"? What does success mean in God's eyes, and how is it different from the worldly standards?