Nehemiah 4: 4 Nehemiah prayed, "Oh listen to us, dear God. We're so despised: Boomerang their ridicule on their heads...Don't be afraid of them. Put your minds on the Master, great and awesome, and then fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes." Nehemiah 4:20 "Our God will fight for us." And they kept working with a tool in one hand and a sword in the other "from first light until the stars came out." They even slept in their clothes. Committed to the vision.
What is stronger in me? A desire to please God and the vision He has given or a desire for mylife, my marriage, my ministry to go well. I must ask again today, what deeply stirs me? Eternity or this life here?
Nehemiah 5:9 When the people protested for lack of food and money, Nehemiah responded: "Is there no fear of God left in you?...May God empty the pockets and house of everyone who doesn't keep their promise to finish their calling—turned inside out and emptied." Nehemiah knew he was doing a great work, Nehemiah 6:3.
Neh 6:16 - all our enemies heard the news of the finished work;
and all the surrounding nations saw it,
our enemies totally lost their nerve.
They knew that God was behind this work. Do my enemies lose their nerve when they hear of God completing His perfect work in me? When they hear that God is so behind the work of my heart? IDK. This I do know--- I want my enemies to be drawn closer to my God, their God.
There is a relationship that I am wrestling through where I want someone to change for their good. I'm so adamant that they are wrong and I believe I am right. But that's not the issue anymore. What stirs me from this book is that I must reveal to them the character of our Good God and not try to move them to change by my words, my prayers, my actions. Of course, I should hope and pray for their good, their transformation, with all my heart. But I'm so stuck on them changing that I've become unbecomingly arrogant and quietly demanding.
Back in the close of the Book of Ezra, Crabb wrote: "There's always a way back from sin. Tears of hope will flow every time you experience My Loving Mercy when you fail...Ezra's burden for holiness led to tears of repentance." What deeply disturbs me? What are these tears that flow? Tears of Hope? Tears of Repentance? I think they might be tears of pain.
PHOTO: Zekey and Bristol. Mimi prayed for you this day that your would put your minds on your Master all the days of your lives. You both are so precious to me and I think the world of you. I wish I could be you in the family that you have. Be like Him. Love like Him.
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