October 8

Nehemiah 1-3

Rebuilding the wall.

Years ago, Travis and I attended a church in Michigan that was starting a building project. They needed a new church building because their current location was too small. Before any of the work had started, the pastor preached a 13-week sermon series on the book of Nehemiah. He wanted to make sure that the people in the congregation understood that this new building would not happen if God was not the focus.

Nehemiah had many obstacles in his way. The first was King Artaxerxes. He heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the gates had been burned. He was moved to take action but could not because he was in the service of the king. This caused him great sadness, that was noticed by the king. When he asked Nehemiah what was wrong, he did the right thing by praying before speaking. He was then rewarded with the king's blessing to oversee the rebuilding of the wall. This whole project would have been doomed from the start if Nehemiah had not turned to God first. He ended up accomplished a great task because he had God on his side from the start.

It's important to remember that no matter how large or small our tasks are, we cannot accomplish anything with God on our side.