Nehemiah 6:15-16 "So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. And it came about when all of our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it, they lost their confidence; for they recognized that this work had been accomplished wirth the help of our God."
After returning from exile in Persia (445 B.C.) one of Nehemiah's goals was to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, his motivation was to be faithful to the law of God. Like so many leaders, Nehemiah had enemies and these enemies didn't want this wall to be rebuild because it would show patriotism and bring a growth of power to Jerusalem but more importantly to Nehemiah. So work on the wall became extremely tough and especially dangerous for Nehemiah and the other former exiles. Nehemiah showed great courage with his tireless work ethic and trust in the Lord for protection, his friends begged him to flee to protection (6:11) when there was a plot to kill him. Nehemiah's courage became contagious and it spread across the team and they gained momentum and finished this great task with the Lord's fuel. Notice the last part of v. 16; the non-believers lost their confidence because they recognized that the Lord was very real. Wow!
As you can see this is a meaty scoop of scripture, so much going on in it. Obedience to the law of God, hard work, infectious courage, loss of confidence by the other guys, and recognition of the Lord our God's power and realness. Mmmmm! Here's the rub (the polishing of this issue to make it pretty, ready for showing), what are we courageous about, are we being infectious in a positive way, are we working hard in our faith to find the truth and load ourselves up with wisdom (like my man Solomon), are we following the law to get to heaven or are we following the law to get a better understanding and deeper relationship with our Creator, or have we lost confidence in this whole thing? Reread that sentence and pray before you do, so God will reveal more of His will to us and provide where we lack, here I will set it up for us.
Heavenly Father, my fire dies out, I lose my courage to stand on the front line, I get selfish and forget about the power of my life as a witness for You, and I get lazy as Your student, forgive me and give me the strength and motivation/desire to live for You and seek the truth, help me to be all that You want me to be, I trust You to give me all that I need to be a vessel for Your kingdom, pour out blessings that are of Your perfect will on my life, I love You and praise You, Amen!
What are we courageous about, are we being infectious in a positive way, are we working hard in our faith to find the truth and load ourselves up with wisdom, are we following the law to get to heaven or are we following the law to get a better understanding and deeper relationship with our Creator, or have we lost confidence in this whole thing? Gut check!
Brothers, "challenge up", the challenge is there, take it and run, let us be courageous and be powerful influences for others around us, our lives are big tools of God's, know that and trust it, relight that fire and let this group be a spark to your "Christmas Yule Log". Be blessed knowing Jesus was who He said He was!
Jules
3 comments:
Preach it! Nehemiah was a stud.
By the way, when you retire from baseball, whenever that happens, you are going to be in the ministry full time. What do you think about that?
I think I am getting closer to that realization. I can sit here and tell you all of the things I don't want that come with what I think ministry is but that would be like pissing in the wind. I am a bondservant for Christ and whatever He commands me to do I will do. Glad I have you to help me through and go through everything first so I can just learn from your experiences. Amen?
Powerful post, Benjamin.
I am stressing over many, many worldly things right now. Money, and career being at the top of the list. I keep praying to get this weight off my back and give it up to God, but I truely am not doing it.
My wife and I were stressing about bills and property taxes being due soon. We needed about $500 more dollars than we had to pay for these. Then my wife comes home from her parent's house with an envelope and hands it to me. It was $500 cash that we gave her parents to help out with our big vacation outing in the past summer. We had never asked for any money back, we do it every year to contribute to the vacation fund. Her dad just said that he had made a big sale and wanted to give it back to us.
This just hit me and my wife in the face as if God was saying, "Hey, I got this. How many times do I have to tell you to trust Me before you do"
Very humbling day
Post a Comment