By Pastor Alex Ruelo
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Nehemiah is the last historical book in the Old Testament. It is about building walls to protect the temple from any attacks and to ensure the continuity of worship. Walls represent power, protection and beauty. Is there anything you need to protect in your life? Is God telling you to protect yourself from something?
Nehemiah 4:7 says, “When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed...” If you go to Israel, you will see that the walls around Jerusalem are made from big, solid rocks. I am sure they were made by man, cut to precision and put in place with strength that we can only imagine. Just like our service to the Lord. We give it our all but when we do things for God to try to close the gap, there will always be some kind of attack or opposition. It is a normal battle like the everyday miracles that are happening in our life.
What do we do when the devil is in attack mode and we are doing the things that God asked us to do?
• Pray. And act. Nehemiah 1:11 says,”Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” Prayer and action go together. Always. You cannot pray and sit still. And you should not act without praying. Before Nehemiah even finished his prayer, God already told him what he should do.
• Predominate Nehemiah 13:25 says, “I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God's name and said: "You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves.” To presominate means to exert controlling power or influence. It is difficult to lead, especially when your subordinates do not want to follow. But we must show them by example and start with ourselves. While there are some who still refuse to obey , sometimes we have to look past that and finish the work that is assigned to us.
• Put It Together. Nehemiah 13:30-31 says, “So I purified the priests and the Levites of everything foreign, and assigned them duties, each to his own task. 31 I also made provision for contributions of wood at designated times, and for the first fruits...”. To build a wall requires teamwork. We must learn how to delegate in order to complete a task. In our lives, God has sent people to help us “build” ourselves and “fix” things that need to be fixed. We must “use” them to finish the task He has assigned to us. We must follow through and do more than what is given.
Put God first. Stand firm where you are called. Get used to God working in your life. Finish what God asked you to do.
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