We’ve talked about how God speaks to us before. From comets to snow to voices…one of several ways God has caught my attention.
Well it was an overwhelmed kinda week…and worst part was it was all good! As in, there was an abundance of good that I was being asked to include in my work. When you have the capability of adding to your work, and it is all good as far as you can tell, when do you say “stop?” It wouldn’t necessarily mean more work for me, but it could change the dynamic of work and on the front-end I was already overwhelmed just thinking about it. What was right here?
I could feel myself trying to hold myself together. Where was the peace I needed, the answers I needed? Where was God’s guidance right now?
Then. The peace came. Another way God can speak to me…a Bible verse came to me. The story was of Nehemiah, a man with a palace position who has traveled across the desert with other former exiles to re-build a destroyed city wall. He works beside the other workers, encouraging and building, standing guard with sword in one hand and tools in the other because frenemies did not want the wall to be rebuilt. As long as Nehemiah was there encouraging, the work was getting done in record-time. Finally the outsiders tried tricking insiders to get him to become overwhelmed, to be distracted from his purpose. To this, Nehemiah replied four times “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down…” (Nehemiah 6:6). How fantastic is this?
Instant peace. I had to believe that God has been leading in my life, that if I felt I was being distracted from my “great work” (ok maybe that’s being a bit bold, but I hope you get the idea) then my response was “I cannot come down”. I cannot take my eye off the goal. I cannot waste time with things that distract me from my purpose. I cannot.
The results of Nehemiah saying this? Nehemiah prayed to God “No therefore, O God, strengthen my hands…. So the wall was finished … in fifty two days.” Nehemiah 6:9, 15.
God has placed you where you are to do a great work. Do not be distracted. “I cannot come down.”
