Devotion: A Great Work

Nehemiah is one of my favorite people in the Bible. He had a passion for God that I long for. He was alive during a time that Israel was held in captivity. He didn't live in Jerusalem, but He understood that Jerusalem was the place that God had set apart for Himself. It was an important city because God resided there. Word came to Nehemiah that the walls of Jerusalem had been destroyed, so he sought special permission from the king to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls.

Upon hearing about the renovations, Israel's enemies were not too happy. They often tried to thwart the progress, but Nehemiah was determined. At one point his enemies sent him a letter asking him to meet at a certain place. They had planned to harm Nehemiah. His response is what I want to focus on:

"So I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.'" (Nehemiah 6:3)

Nehemiah was convinced that his work was the right thing, the thing that God had called him to do, and he wouldn't stop for anybody. He wasn't going to let his enemies get to him. He wasn't going to be discouraged by all of the chatter and negativity that swirled around his work.

My prayer is that I could be more like Nehemiah. I pray that I would 1) be able to clearly see God's call in my life, 2) have the courage to follow the call, and 3) not be discouraged when negativity swirls around my call.  I pray that I can fix my eyes on Jesus so that when the Enemy tries to get me to focus elsewhere I can say, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."

Let's make this our prayer for 2014, that we would hear the call of God, follow the call, and fix our eyes on Jesus through it all.

-Norm

(Hat tip to Adam Sharp, Vineyard Student Union, for getting this idea rolling)