When Nehemiah heard about the plight of his countrymen, he turned to the Lord first of all. He prayed. He had a revelation of who God is, and what His people meant to God. He demonstrated an insightful and mature understanding of God. God allowed Nehemiah a glimpse into His heart for the people. In that very prayer, he took the desire of God right into his heart as his very own. Thus the boldness in his prayer. You can see this in Nehemiah 1, from verse 4 onwards.
As he prayed, God must have allowed him to see what was to come. And in the very last verse of Chapter 1, he asked for favour before the king.
And he waited... till God's appointed time before acting. And when the right time came, he recognised in his spirit God's intervention, and prayed a quick prayer and gave an answer to the King.
He must have been led by the Spirit of God in answer to his prayer.
He was not moved by the customary practices of that time. It was not the etiquette of that time to look sad in front of the king. But he allowed his demeanour to reflect his burden.
He was not moved by his circumstances - no one else he knew had the same desire or burden.
He knew his purpose, and perhaps he realised that even his status as cupbearer had to have been within God's divine plan for the rebuilding of the gates and walls of Jerusalem.
So when the opportunity presented itself in the form of the king's question, God poured forth His favour upon Nehemiah through a positively heartening response from the king, with resources placed at Nehemiah's disposal.
Still, he was alone. He started off alone, but God sent like-minded people his way. In fact, he had not told anyone of his intention, and no one knew till the appointed time in Nehemiah 2:17.
There were many obstacles to his task ahead, but as he prayed and waited, God dealt with each obstacle, one at a time. It was clear that God had a plan, and Nehemiah need only follow it. Instead of being discouraged by the plot and strategies of the enemy, they sought the help and wisdom of the Lord, and were not thwarted in their rebuilding efforts. He put plans in place for protection against the enemy.
Nehemiah 4:9
But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
When the labourers who also had to stand guard to defend themselves and prevent any attack on the wall or on the people became tired and weary to the point of wanting to give up, Nehemiah stood firm in his purpose and continued to encourage them.
Some people wonder whether the dream is the thing that keeps them going. To me, the focus should be on the One Who Gives The Dream. We have a relationship with our heavenly Father, that would help us stand strong in any difficulty or challenge.
If our focus is on the dream or the task to be accomplished, our identity and purpose become enmeshed with whether we succeed or not. We then get discouraged when things seem slow or delayed. But when our focus is on the Lord, we begin to see and understand things from His perspective, that very often in the process, we are growing and learning and strengthend and established, being perfected, and in the meantime, we are still impacting and influencing others.
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