When the
Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and temple, surrounding
kings and generals sent threatening letters to Nehemiah, and Nehemiah writes,
“For they wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the
work, and it will not be done.’ But now, O God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah6:9).
The world is
a chaotic place of darkness. If we stare too long and listen too hard at it, we
will see the brokenness and hear the painful cries of pleasure without joy;
water from a well that never satisfies (John 4:13). From this world comes
taunting and distraction. “The church has become irrelevant,” they shout.
“Christians are hateful bigots,” they claim. “The church is dying,” they mock
while pointing to closed church buildings. The noise from the world can and is
causing Christians to stumble and become silent, stopping our commanded work.
Let’s be
confident. Not simply in our faith, but Who the object of our faith is. He is
mighty; He is mighty to provide and He is mighty to save. Our confidence is not
to be founded upon ourselves or upon the work of the church gathered. The source
of the confidence of the Christian and the work of the church is to be the
might of the Lord.
When the
world seeks to frighten the Christian’s work of disciple-making and
discipleship, trying desperately to get us to stop the work, let us pray like
Nehemiah: “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.” Not by our own will or driven
by inner strength, but seeking God to strengthen our hands.
Let us be
like Paul, learning to have joyful obedience not dependent upon comfort, but “I
can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
When the
exiles finished building the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah tells us, “all the
nations around us were afraid” (Nehemiah 6:16). Let us do Kingdom work, being
confident disciple-makers using the power of God in the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
O sovereign God, strengthen the hands of
your servants to take the light of Jesus Christ into darkness, and grant us
peace in Your presence shielded from the noise of this world. May Your Name be
glorified in the work of our hands. Amen.
