Nehemiah is often put forth as a model for Christian leaders to follow, and he\u2019s not a bad choice. He was an ordinary person doing what God compelled him to do\u2014thus accomplishing the extraordinary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love Nehemiah because of how simply and earnestly he relied on his relationship with God; he lived according to an unwavering obedience, doing whatever God put before him. Nehemiah had many opportunities to take an easy way out or to take the high road of prideful superiority. Instead, he took God\u2019s path for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some of Nehemiah\u2019s specific choices that encouraged me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nehemiah heard the news of Jerusalem\u2019s demolished walls, and he mourned the loss. <\/strong>If I\u2019m honest, I might have heard the news about Jerusalem\u2019s broken walls, been heavy hearted for a moment, and then thanked God that he had given me a more stable position in life. After all, Nehemiah was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. But Nehemiah went to God with his tears and prayers (Nehemiah 1:4). He praised God and repented (vv.5\u20137), remembered God\u2019s promise to be faithful (vv.9\u201310), and pleaded for success (v.11). <\/p>\n\n\n\n After asking God for his success, Nehemiah acted. Although he was fearful, he prayed to God and asked the king for a leave of absence (Nehemiah 2:1\u20136). When the king granted his request, Nehemiah didn’t frantically go about making things happen. With wisdom, he thoughtfully took his next steps. Even when he arrived in Jerusalem, he didn’t announce the big plan God had put on his heart. He carefully and thoughtfully executed it (vv.1\u201320).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nehemiah defended Jerusalem from enemies with grace and courage (Nehemiah 6:1\u201319). But these enemies weren\u2019t just outside the gates\u2014he found dissension and injustice among his own people and division between them and God. He confronted corrupt leaders (Nehemiah 5:6\u201312), led the people back to God\u2019s word (Nehemiah 9:3; 13:1\u20132), restored the temple, and ensured its leaders were properly taken care of (Nehemiah 13:4\u201314). It sounds exhausting and difficult, but as Nehemiah continually ran to God (Nehemiah 6:9), God gave him the wisdom, courage, and strength to accomplish every single task before him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Through Nehemiah\u2019s actions, we see God\u2019s heart for His people. When we are obedient to God\u2019s call like Nehemiah was, we also accomplish what is on His heart for others. His story reminds me that at every juncture, I have a choice to make: I can show up to walk God\u2019s road and communicate His love to others,\u00a0 or I could sit back and pray half-heartedly that someone else will. The book of Nehemiah as a whole points our hearts to Jesus who, centuries later, became the ultimate servant leader, passionately devoted to His God and His people, moving heaven and earth to gather them to Himself. Jesus did what Nehemiah could not do: He brought true and perfect salvation, once and for all (Hebrews 2:10\u201317).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nehemiah is often put forth as a model for Christian leaders to follow, and he\u2019s not a bad choice. He was an ordinary person doing what God compelled him to do\u2014thus accomplishing the extraordinary. I love Nehemiah because of how simply and earnestly he relied on his relationship with God; he lived according to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":72157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pitot"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72122],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"NEHEMIAH<\/b> Nehemiah is often put forth as a model for Christian leaders to follow, and he\u2019s not a bad choice. He was an ordinary person doing what God compelled him to do\u2014thus accomplishing the extraordinary.<\/p> I love Nehemiah because of how simply and earnestly he relied on his relationship with God; he lived according to an unwavering obedience, doing whatever God put before him. Nehemiah had many opportunities to take an easy way out or to take the high road of prideful superiority. Instead, he took God\u2019s path for him.<\/p> Here are some of Nehemiah\u2019s specific choices that encouraged me.<\/p> Nehemiah heard the news of Jerusalem\u2019s demolished walls, and he mourned the loss. If I\u2019m honest, I might have heard the news about Jerusalem\u2019s broken walls, been heavy hearted for a moment, and then thanked God that he had given me a more stable position in life. After all, Nehemiah was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. But Nehemiah went to God with his tears and prayers (Nehemiah 1:4). He praised God and repented (vv.5\u20137), remembered God\u2019s promise to be faithful (vv.9\u201310), and pleaded for success (v.11).<\/p> After asking God for his success, Nehemiah acted. Although he was fearful, he prayed to God and asked the king for a leave of absence (Nehemiah 2:1\u20136). When the king granted his request, Nehemiah didn't frantically go about making things happen. With wisdom, he thoughtfully took his next steps. Even when he arrived in Jerusalem, he didn't announce the big plan God had put on his heart. He carefully and thoughtfully executed it (vv.1\u201320).<\/p> Nehemiah defended Jerusalem from enemies with grace and courage (Nehemiah 6:1\u201319). But these enemies weren\u2019t just outside the gates\u2014he found dissension and injustice among his own people and division between them and God. He confronted corrupt leaders (Nehemiah 5:6\u201312), led the people back to God\u2019s word (Nehemiah 9:3; 13:1\u20132), restored the temple, and ensured its leaders were properly taken care of (Nehemiah 13:4\u201314). It sounds exhausting and difficult, but as Nehemiah continually ran to God (Nehemiah 6:9), God gave him the wisdom, courage, and strength to accomplish every single task before him.<\/p> Through Nehemiah\u2019s actions, we see God\u2019s heart for His people. When we are obedient to God\u2019s call like Nehemiah was, we also accomplish what is on His heart for others. His story reminds me that at every juncture, I have a choice to make: I can show up to walk God\u2019s road and communicate His love to others, or I could sit back and pray half-heartedly that someone else will. The book of Nehemiah as a whole points our hearts to Jesus who, centuries later, became the ultimate servant leader, passionately devoted to His God and His people, moving heaven and earth to gather them to Himself. Jesus did what Nehemiah could not do: He brought true and perfect salvation, once and for all (Hebrews 2:10\u201317).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"47","scripture":"Ezra 2:1-2, Nehemiah 1:1-11, Nehemiah 2:1-6, Nehemiah 6:1-4, Nehemiah 13:1-14","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Ginny Owens<\/i>
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n