“And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me.”
Nehemiah 2:8 NLT
Yesterday God stopped me with the question, “Are you weeping for what I have called you to build?”
So Today, as we read Nehemiah 2, let's ask ourselves this...
If God opened the door we've been praying for today, would we be ready to walk through it?
Think about it. Would you be ready? Are you equipped to do what he has called you to do, or would you feel overwhelmed and need more time. Because Nehemiah didn't hear about Jerusalem's broken walls one day and start rebuilding them the next. Months had passed between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.
He carried the burden for months. He prayed about it and He waited. But while he was doing that he was also preparing for what was to come. Then one day, while Nehemiah is doing what he's been doing all along, serving the king, the opportunity comes. King Artaxerxes notices the sadness on his face and asks him what's wrong. And Nehemiah admits he was terrified in that moment. I love that Scripture tells us that because sometimes we think being called means we won't be scared when the opportunity finally comes.
Nehemiah was scared.
But he was ready.
So When the king asks, “Well, how can I help you?” Nehemiah quickly, in that moment, prays to God and then answers.
Chapter 1 gave us the long prayer, the weeping, fasting, sitting-before-God kind of prayer.
Chapter 2 gives us the Okay God, here we go prayer.
I've prayed both. And when the king asks what Nehemiah needs, he knows exactly what to ask for.. He needs permission to go. He needs letters for safe travel and He needs timber. You see Nehemiah had been getting ready for the answer to the prayer he was praying. The time he spent weeping and praying and waiting wasn't wasted. It was a time of preparation.
We pray for God to open the door. Grow the ministry. Send the people. We pray for him to use us and give us the opportunity. But are we preparing ourselves for the answer. If we're asking God to send people, are we making room for them? If we're asking Him to grow something, are we preparing for the responsibility that comes with growth? If we're asking Him to open a door, are we getting ready to walk through it?
Waiting on God doesn't mean doing nothing. Nehemiah's waiting wasn't wasted. And neither is ours when we allow God to use it.
Then Nehemiah gets to Jerusalem, and once again, he doesn't rush into anything. He goes out at night and inspects the walls for himself without anyone knowing. He sees the burned gates. He sees the broken walls. He sees so much rubble that at one point his animal can't even get through. And he still believes they can rebuild.
I think we need that reminder.
Faith doesn't mean pretending the rubble isn't there. We can look at a broken situation and call it what it is while still believing God isn't finished with it yet.
The family can be struggling and God can rebuild.
The church can have broken places and God can rebuild.
The next generation can face very real problems and God can still rebuild.
There can be places in our own lives that look like piles of rubble and God can still rebuild. And when Nehemiah finally speaks to the people, he doesn't point fingers and ask why they haven't fixed everything already. He says
“You know very well what trouble we are in.”
Nehemiah 2:17 NLT
And There it is again. We. Nehemiah isn't standing outside the rubble judging the people living in it. He's standing right there with them saying, Come on. Let's build together.
And they respond to him “Yes, let's rebuild the wall!” Nehemiah 2:18 NLT
So what started as one man's burden is now becoming a shared assignment among people. And almost immediately the opposition shows up. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem mock them, but Nehemiah doesn't worry about defending himself or trying to convince them that God really spoke. He just tells them that The God of heaven will help us succeed. We, his servants, will start rebuilding this wall.
We can't spend all of our time that we should be building explaining the blueprint to people God never assigned to the wall. Not everybody will understand what God put in your heart. Just Keep building. Yesterday God asked, Are you weeping for what God has called you to build? But Today Are you preparing for the yes?
We don't need the whole blueprint. We don't need to know every obstacle we might face or exactly how everything will work. We just need to pray, prepare, pay attention to where God has positioned us and be faithful with what's in front of us. Eventually the door we've been praying for will open. And when God says it's time, we need to be ready to say, Yes, Lord. Let's rise and build.
Let's be Ready.
Love Pastor Mandy
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
Daily Reading Nehemiah 2
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