They did it.
After 52 days of building, fighting, praying, guarding, dealing with people, dealing with rumors, dealing with exhaustion and refusing to come down from the wall it was finished.
And if I was Nehemiah I would be ready to stand back for a minute and say, Look what we built! But Nehemiah doesn't stay there very long. Because finishing what God told you to build doesn't mean there isn't still work to do.
He immediately starts putting people in place to take care of what has been built. And when he chooses Hananiah for an important leadership role, Scripture tells us “Hananiah was a faithful man who feared God more than most.” Nehemiah 7:2 NLT
That word faithful jumped out at me.
We've spent seven days talking about building, but what happens when God actually gives us the thing we've been praying and working for?
I've prayed for God to grow things, to Send people, Open doors and Use me Ive prayed for him to Give me opportunities. But then I have to ask myself, Am I ready to take care of what I've been asking Him to send. Building something and faithfully stewarding it are two different things.
Then we get another big list of names.
And by now, after all these books we've gone through together, we know better than to skip the lists right. Those names matter because those names are people. They're families. They're generations. They're part of the story God is rebuilding.
And right before the list, Nehemiah tells us something that really hit me, “At that time the city was large and spacious, but the population was small, and none of the houses had been rebuilt.” Nehemiah 7:4 NLT
Wait a minute right. They finished the wall but there weren't enough people inside it.
And there it is.
The wall was never the point. God wasn't rebuilding Jerusalem because He really needed a nice wall. He was rebuilding a place for His people.
And that made this really personal for me.
I build a lot of things. Ministry. Bible studies. Children's church. Devotions. Ideas. Programs. And I love building. This whole year God has been dealing with me about building. But I never want to get so busy building for people that I forget about the actual people. I don't want to be so worried about whether the program worked that I miss the kid who needed someone to notice them. I don't want to be so focused on growing a ministry that I stop seeing the person sitting right in front of me. I don't want to build something beautiful for God and then look around and realize I forgot who He asked me to build it for.
The wall mattered. God told them to build it. So this isn't about the wall being unimportant. It's about remembering why God told them to build it in the first place. Who is behind what God has called us to build. Because eventually the event ends. Programs change. Buildings age. Ministries may look different from one season to another.
But those names, Those families, Those generations.... They are what matter to God. We've spent the first half of Rise & Build rebuilding the wall. Now we're about to see why God wanted it rebuilt. Because God wasn't just rebuilding something around His people. He was getting ready to rebuild something within them.
Are we ready?
Love Pastor Mandy
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
Daily reading Nehemiah 7
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