Friday July 29 


“We rebuilt the wall…for the people worked with all their heart.”  Ne 4:6 NIV

Prepare yourself

To succeed, Nehemiah needed favor with his boss, the king. So he prayed that this heathen potentate would finance the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. It was a bold prayer, and it wasn’t answered overnight. But Nehemiah didn’t sit around waiting. In the meantime he put together a plan, assembled a team, and scheduled a date to begin the work. That way when the king said yes, he was ready to move. Some folks think if God’s going to do something, why should we do anything? Then there are those who think they don’t need God at all, so they try to do it on their own. But both extremes are wrong. Sometimes God has to balance what He’s doing in your life with what He’s doing in somebody else’s life, so that “all things work together for good” (Ro 8:28). In Nehemiah’s case, waiting for a letter of authorization from the king and funding for the project was like waiting for a government grant—it can take a while. But the Bible says, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Pr 21:1 NAS). Nehemiah exercised bold confidence in God’s willingness to provide. He also understood that while he was waiting, it was his responsibility to prepare and set things in place so that when God gave him the green light he was ready to move. He exercised faith—and wisdom. He knew he couldn’t do God’s part, and that God wouldn’t do his part. So the word for you today is: “Prepare yourself!