In His Name Devotionals
HANDLING HECKLERS
In His Name Devotionals
HANDLING HECKLERS
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12 NKJV)
One of the most difficult things for a worker to endure is the heckling of idle people.
Every busy person who is trying to accomplish something always has his audience of doubters, fault-finders and hecklers who try to distract him from his goal. Presidents, governors, mayors, generals, and inventors have barrages of stones thrown at them on their way to glory.
Nehemiah was no exception to this rule. Sanballot was satisfied to see Jerusalem in ruin and he realized that he had done little or nothing to improve its condition and now he was determined that Nehemiah was not going to accomplish something where he had failed. So, he started ridiculing their efforts by saying, “What do these feeble Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish which are burned?” (Nehemiah 4:2
Most hecklers envision themselves as being witty and so Tobiah the Ammonite joined in by quipping, “Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.” (Nehemiah 4:3)
Nehemiah was big enough to ignore their insults and did not give them the satisfaction of answering back. He simply talked to God about it, went on with his work and continued to encourage the people.
There were numerous jokes made about Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone when he was having one failure after another. Had he stopped to answer all his critics he would not have been its inventor.
If we try today to answer all the critics of the Bible, Christianity and our efforts to live the Christian life, we will never save our souls. Christianity is a life of enduring persecution, not answering it. It is a life of “praying for those that despitefully use you and persecute you.” No great thing in life is ever accomplished without enduring criticism.
If you are not criticized, maybe you need to examine the depth of your faith.
