Overcoming Opposition
Opposition Isn’t Always a Stop Sign
You finally decide to take the step.
You start the business, fight for your marriage, get serious about your faith, or begin building the thing you have put off for too long. Then, almost immediately, things get harder instead of easier.
That was the tension Pastor Mike O’Connell opened with this Sunday in Overcoming Opposition, the latest message in our walk through the book of Nehemiah.
When resistance shows up, it is easy to assume we made the wrong decision. We wonder if the difficulty is a sign that we should stop, turn around, or choose an easier path.
But opposition does not always mean you are headed in the wrong direction. Sometimes it shows up because you are finally moving in the right one.
The message centered around one clear statement from Nehemiah 6:
“I cannot come down.”
At this point in the story, Nehemiah is leading the effort to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall. The work is moving forward, but his enemies keep inviting him to stop and meet with them.
They ask four times, and each time Nehemiah gives the same answer.
“I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?” Nehemiah 6:3
Nehemiah understood what mattered most. He knew what God had placed in front of him, and he refused to let every interruption pull him away from it.
Pastor Mike reminded us that not everything asking for our attention deserves it. Some conversations can wait. Some invitations need a no. Some voices are not meant to shape our next step.
Opposition does not automatically mean we are off track.
“Sometimes it means that you’re actually walking right in the middle of it.”
The question is not simply whether resistance has shown up. The question is whether we will allow it to pull us away from what God has asked us to build.
The Different Faces of Opposition
Throughout Nehemiah’s story, opposition showed up in several different ways. Pastor Mike walked through five of them and showed how those same patterns can still affect us today.
The first was ridicule.
In Nehemiah 4, the builders were mocked before the wall was even finished.
“What are these feeble Jews doing?”
Ridicule tries to weaken your confidence before it ever touches your progress. Sometimes it comes from the people around us, but other times it sounds like the voice in our own head.
Pastor Mike challenged us to pay attention to the way we speak to ourselves.
“If you talked to your friends the way that you talk to yourself, you’d probably be friendless.”
The words we repeat internally matter. They can strengthen us for what is ahead, or they can slowly convince us to walk away from something we were once willing to fight for.
Opposition also showed up through intimidation. Intimidation often begins with a question.
What if it does not work? What if you fail? What if everything falls apart?
Nehemiah’s enemies tried to use fear to stop the work before they ever had to fight against it.
“Before they know what’s happening, we will swoop down on them and kill them and end their work.” Nehemiah 4:11
Pastor Mike described fear as imagining a future where God is absent.
“Fear is just projecting a future that God is not in the middle of.”
Fear focuses on everything that could go wrong while forgetting that God will still be present in whatever comes next. That’s what makes discouragement so dangerous. Someone else’s doubt can slowly become our own. Before long, we begin questioning the same thing we once felt sure God had asked us to do.
Distraction was another form of opposition Nehemiah faced.
His enemies invited him to meet with them four separate times. On the surface, the request may have sounded reasonable, but their real goal was to pull him away from the wall.
Nehemiah recognized that and refused to leave the work.
“Not everything asking for your attention deserves your attention. Not every invitation deserves a yes.”
Distraction does not always look obviously harmful. Sometimes it looks like a good opportunity, an urgent conversation, or a request that feels difficult to turn down. But even good things can become distractions when they pull us away from what matters most.
The final form of opposition Pastor Mike highlighted was deception.
A man claiming to speak for God told Nehemiah to hide inside the temple. Nehemiah eventually recognized that the warning had not come from God at all. That part of the story is important because deception does not always look clearly wrong.
“Sometimes he disguises fear as wisdom. Sometimes he disguises compromise as compassion.”
Not every cautious thought is wisdom. Not every open door is from God. Sometimes discernment means slowing down long enough to ask what is really influencing our decision.
Pray, Protect, and Persist
So how did Nehemiah keep moving through all of it?
Pastor Mike highlighted a simple pattern in his response: pray, protect, and persist.Nehemiah prayed before he reacted.
“But we prayed to our God.” Nehemiah 4:9
He did not ignore what was happening or pretend the threats were not real. He simply took them to God before allowing fear to determine his next move. Prayer was not his last resort. It was his first response.
Nehemiah also protected what mattered.
“The laborers carried on their work with one hand supporting their load and one hand holding a weapon.” — Nehemiah 4:17
He trusted God, but he also took practical steps to guard the work.
The same can be true for us. We can pray for our marriage and still set healthy boundaries. We can trust God with our minds and still be intentional about what we allow to influence us. We can believe in what God has called us to do and still protect the time, relationships, and habits needed to carry it well.
And through every setback, Nehemiah persisted.
He did not stop because people mocked him. He did not come down because they threatened him. He did not abandon the work when the people became tired. He stayed committed to what was in front of him.
Persistence does not mean pretending something is easy. It means deciding that difficulty will not have the final word.
Difficulty Can Develop You
Pastor Mike closed with a personal reflection on the 18 months of loss, illness, and hardship that led up to him becoming lead pastor this January.
The road was not easy, and he did not try to wrap the story in a simple answer. But through every difficult season, God was still working.
Sometimes we ask God to remove the resistance when He may be using it to strengthen something within us.
The opposition is not always proof that we should stop. It may be the place where our faith deepens, our discernment grows, and our dependence on God becomes stronger than it was before.
So what do you do this week?
What has God placed in front of you to build? Maybe it is your faith, your marriage, your family, your health, a ministry, or an idea you know you are supposed to pursue.
Now think about the opposition that has been the loudest. Has it been ridicule, intimidation, discouragement, distraction, or deception?
Name it.
Bring it to God before taking it anywhere else.
Then ask what needs to be protected so you can keep moving forward.
You don’t have to respond to every voice or say yes to every invitation. Stay focused on what God has placed in front of you, and keep building.
When opposition comes, remember Nehemiah’s words:
“I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come.”
You don’t have to come down.
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