Modelling Christ
6 min read
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”
10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.”
11 But I said, “Should a man like me run away? Or should someone like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!” 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
— Nehemiah 6:9-13
Who is a man like Nehemiah? He was a man who was convicted in his heart to restore the state of the city of God, Jerusalem. His faith told him that his conviction came from God, and every step of the way, he found evidence that that was indeed the case. The hand of God was indeed with him.
While it is true that God builds His kingdom and His church, God does so through His servants. But we have to understand the dynamic of our relationship with Jesus. Oswald Chambers said that God calls us to do everything that we can do, and He will do those things that we cannot. We are to do whatever is possible, and God will do what is impossible—if we would only ask. That is faith.
When we embark on some work that we believe God has placed in our hearts, resistance from people is not usually a sign that our conviction was misguided. In fact, resistance from people may be a clear sign that God is indeed ordaining that work.
The “prophet” Shemaiah was telling Nehemiah to go to the temple (the house of God) to seek shelter from alleged people who were out to kill him. Those people most definitely wanted to kill Nehemiah. And yet, Nehemiah knew that to use the name of the LORD as protection against his adversaries was a cowardly act that would (1) stop the work he was so convicted about and (2) put into question his motivation and his conviction.
If we ever quit a work that we think came from the Lord, we were never doing it for the Lord, but for ourselves.
Whatever resistance we encounter along the way is always an opportunity to draw into intimate fellowship with Christ on the cross. That is why the Father always allows such resistance to happen—so that we would cling to Him and Him alone as our Redeemer, Savior, Lord, and Friend.
Because the work that God has a vested interest in is not the work itself that God has given us an opportunity to undertake. WE are the divine work.
Father, I thank You for saving me. You have taken whatever ambition I have and targeted them for You and Your kingdom. You have strengthened my hands in the past countless times. Strengthen my hands again as we embark on this plan to start a second service. Whatever challenges and resistance we face along the way, strengthen us to fix our eyes on You. Show us Your hand and Your mighty power because we are Your children. In Jesus’s name. Amen.