Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach”… So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to do this good work.
--Nehemiah 2:17-18
As a servant of Jesus Christ, you have a purpose for living. And you can make a difference in your community, church, and world… especially when you work in partnership with others.
When Nehemiah began rebuilding the wall, he knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he enlisted the help of others. All kinds of people were involved… priests, politicians, perfumers, clothiers, tradesmen, bachelors, women… there was a role for everyone.
Yet in the midst of this great movement of service to the Lord, there were still those who chose not to be involved. Nehemiah 3:5 says certain nobles from Tekoa “would not stoop to serve their Lord.”
It was forever recorded in God’s Word that when there was a job to be done for him, these people were absent. Imagine that!
Never let it be said of you that when there was something great to do for God and his Kingdom, you weren’t involved.
Some believers have the idea that when we come to Christ by grace through faith, we don’t need to serve and work hard. But Nehemiah and the believers of his day realized the charge to work hard and accomplished the impossible for God’s glory.
I want to challenge you today: Do you have a place on the wall? Are you participating in building God’s Kingdom?
There is a ministry for every person in the fellowship of the Lord—and every place is important. Ask the Lord how he wants to use you!
AS LONG AS WE HAVE LIFE AND BREATH, WE’RE TO SERVE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Luke 10:1–2
In 1792, largely because of the efforts of William Carey, churches in England united together and formed the Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen and appointed Carey and John Thomas to go to India as their first missionaries. In a tearful prayer service as they prepared to leave, those who remained behind promised to pray. Andrew Fuller later described their parting with the analogy of miners going deep underground secured by those on the surface holding fast to strong ropes. Fuller said, “Before [Carey] went, we engaged that while he lived we should never let go the rope.”
There are many good and necessary things that are part of reaching the lost, but the thing Jesus said should come first is our prayers. In a day when more missionaries are coming home than going out and many are leaving full time ministry, we need to be more faithful than ever to pray that God will provide the workers to bring in the harvest.
Often we focus on programs, training, and materials, and all of those have their proper place. But sometimes we fail to see the needs of workers for the harvest met because we have failed to pray. The need for workers is certainly not limited to foreign missions. There are many places in the United States that lack a clear gospel witness. It should break our hearts and drive us to our knees to think of the harvest lacking workers. And while we pray, we should ask God to make us part of the solution.
Today’s Growth Principle:
Before the white fields of harvest can be reached, we must be faithful to pray.
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