As I attended church this past weekend I was struck by the fact
that our Alive people love on our Alive people and are passionate about serving not only each other but our community at large. I love how we have taken the message of Nehemiah and are digesting it and making it a part of our lives. I was struck with how this ancient story is so similar to the stories of adversity and overcoming that have happened throughout the ages. Christians, in general, have not had it easy, especially in some countries that don’t allow its practice….and isn’t it strange that in those difficult surroundings we are seeing people’s Faith growing by leaps and bounds!
Following God’s plan is not a “free pass”, it doesn’t just get us out of adversity. We discovered, as we dived deeper into the story of Nehemiah, adversity increased when Nehemiah took the step of faith to follow the prompting God had placed on his heart to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. This, by the way, wasn’t a small feat in and of itself…these walls were to be 8 feet thick by 40 feet high by 2 miles long, that is a huge undertaking! On top of the enormity of the project there was opposition; not only from outside groups that hated the people of Jerusalem BUT people that were a part of the community!
On a personal note, I was reminded that everyone is dealing with their own walls in life; struggles and opposition that seem insurmountable that weigh each of us down bringing us to the point of wanting to give up on ever finding success in the rubble. Maybe we are struggling with broken relationships, financial insecurities, employment issues, or even this pandemic, feeling like it’s hopeless…but we were reminded that through prayer God can give us direction to find our way through and out of those struggles and rebuild those crisis issues in our life through faithfully walking His journey for us rather than battling it on our own.
What we discovered this weekend is that to follow God’s plan for our lives we may have to take steps of faith outside our comfort zone; but when we do the proper planning, have faith in God’s provision and direction and take that final step to take action toward our “wall” we will see God working out the details.