Today is the third devotional in the series on Nehemiah. Start today’s devotion by reading the text. Then, answer the questions that follow. Each devotional will end with a Personal Application and Encouragement to help you apply what you have read to your every day life. Want to catch up on the series? Here are links to the first two posts: What Are You Building? What Walls Do You Need To Repair?
Read Nehemiah 3.
Some questions to answer:
- How many groups of people helped in rebuilding the wall?
- What were some of the different jobs that were involved in rebuilding the wall?
- How much of the wall did Nehemiah rebuild?
- What does this show you about involving others?
It was Nehemiah’s passion and heart to begin to rebuild the Jerusalem wall (Nehemiah 1). But he could not rebuild it alone. He needed help from others. First, he needed the King to let him out of his duties and head back to Jerusalem. Then, in this passage we see that it was others who helped rebuild the wall. In fact, there were so many groups of people involved in helping that Nehemiah was not even mentioned as being apart of any of the repair crews!
In all, it took the people of Jerusalem 54 days to rebuild the wall (Nehemiah 6:15-16). I wonder how long it would have taken if Nehemiah just tried to rebuild it alone. Get others involved in both your life and work.
Personal Application:
- What kind of support network do you and your family have that encourages you in your life, your relationship with Christ, and your marriage?
- If you do not have a group of people that encourages you in these areas, identify a person or group of people you can get involved with so that you can have the fellowship and accountability you need to thrive.
Encouragement:
In every area of life you, either at home or work, you need to get others involved. Much is at stake – your families, marriages, those you work with, etc. That is why you need to surround yourself with others who will care for and support you personally, as well as help you fight in this mission to win others for the Lord. If you try to pull a Lone Ranger and go after this alone, you run the risk of never truly being effective.
Without help and support from others, our effectiveness and ability to succeed will be limited. Just as Nehemiah knew that he would not be able to build the wall all by himself, we need to recognize our need for help. When you do that, not only will you benefit, but so will others because they get to step up and walk alongside of you through all that life has to throw at you.
Take a minute and pray that God would examine your life and reveal people who can come alongside of you and walk along side you.