2014 Resolutions
It’s that time of year for
resolutions! Today, I want to challenge you to 5 resolutions (or choices) from Nehemiah
6:1-9 to help you get the most out of 2014. For those who don’t know the story,
Nehemiah was a Jewish exile serving in the court of Artexerxes in 446 BC. While
a remnant had finished building the Temple in Jerusalem, the city itself still
lay in ruins. Nehemiah felt compelled by God to accept the challenge to rebuild
the city walls. So, he positioned himself to be a part of the answer to God’s
promises to His people, Israel. By the time we get to our text in Nehemiah 6,
the work has progressed so rapidly that the enemies of the Jews are determined
to put a stop to God’s work through Nehemiah. I want us to see in this passage
5 choices Nehemiah made to give us insight for helping us make the most of
2014.
Nehemiah 6:1-9 1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem
the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap
was left in it—though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates—2 Sanballat
and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the
villages on the plain of Ono.” But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so
I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project
and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to
you?” 4 Four times they sent me the same message, and
each time I gave them the same answer. 5 Then, the fifth
time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was
an unsealed letter 6 in which was written: “It is
reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are
plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover,
according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and
have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem:
‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come,
let us meet together.” 8 I sent him this reply: “Nothing
like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your
head ,9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking,
“Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.” But
I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”
1. Choose the
Spiritual over the Common 6:1
While
Nehemiah was building a wall with doors and gates, his work was not really
about bricks and mortar or doors and hinges. His work actually testified to the
promises of God for His people. Nehemiah discovered that what he was doing was
“great work” because it was spiritual work and spiritual work always trumps
common work for significance.
Whatever you
and I find ourselves doing in 2014, we simply must discover the spiritual
element within it. Otherwise, we are wasting our time. If you find that you
cannot discover the spiritual element in what you are doing, then you probably
need to stop doing it and find some place else to invest your time and energy. The
problem is that too much of what we do is just activity without any
consideration of its spiritual significance. Consider Paul’s words in 1
Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all
for the glory of God.”
2. Choose the
Important over the Urgent 6:2-3
When Nehemiah’s enemies called for a parlay,
they had no interest in dialogue. They intended to harm the work of God by
harming His foot soldier. Nehemiah saw right through their intrigue. He knew
that their urgent call for a clarifying conversation served only as a cover for
their real intention to bring the work on the wall to a screeching halt.
The urgent in
life has always had a nasty habit of getting in the way of the important. Great
followers of Christ seem to have a knack for recognizing the difference between
what is urgent and what is important and adjust their lives to take care of the
most important things FIRST. You will always face competition over God’s agenda
for your life. If you are going to accomplish the purposes God has for you,
then you are going to have to choose the important over the urgent. This means
that hard choices have to be made. For instance, not everything that can be
done should be done. Some things just aren’t that important or significant.
Also, not everything that should be done should be done now. Some things are
not yet ready to be done and some things you’re not yet ready to do. Finally, not
everything that should be done should be done by YOU. Everyone would accomplish
far more if each of us worked in our areas of greatest strength.
3. Choose the
Principled over the Pressured 6:4
When the attempt at distraction failed,
Nehemiah’s enemies refused to give up easily. They simply would not take “no”
for an answer and repeatedly pressured Nehemiah to give in to their wishes. The
cousin to the urgent is the pressured, commonly known as the squeaky wheel gets
the grease. Nehemiah chose to stick to his principles over giving into the
pressure of those who sought to derail his work.
You and I never face a day when our
choices don’t matter. If it was a bad choice yesterday, it’s most likely a bad
choice today. The truth is that giving into pressure doesn’t make it go away.
It makes it grow. Kids, who know mommy or daddy will eventually give in to
their tantrums, only get better at pressuring the parent who serves as the
weakest link! People who learn how to pressure you to give into their wishes
only get better at pressuring you to give them more of what they want.
4. Choose the
Courageous over the Cowardly 6:5-9a
After the innocuous attempt at distraction
failed, followed by the unsuccessful attempt at pressure, Nehemiah’s enemies
escalated to the use of intimidation. The veil of politeness is only useful
until manipulators cannot achieve their objective through the social graces.
Nehemiah would have none of it. After all God had done for him and after all he
had already accomplished with the power of God, now was not the time to get
weak in the knees. Nehemiah courageously stood his ground, even at great risk
to everything he had worked so hard to get done.
When you decide to adopt God’s
priorities for your life, you will face attempts to distract you, usually with
“urgencies”. You will face attempts to pressure you, usually with phrases like:
come on, it’s no big deal, what’s it going to hurt, no one will ever know,
don’t you love me, what’s wrong with a little… and the list goes on and on. If
you manage to stand your ground in the face of the pressure, you can rest
assured that the next thing you will face is intimidation. This is where you
have to choose to stand your ground, regardless of the consequences. And you
need to be aware that some people will carry out their threats and you may
indeed suffer loss. However, know this: no one celebrates the cowardly. We only
celebrate the courageous, but there’s more at stake than being celebrated. It
is vital to your spiritual well-being that you learn to be courageous. How
vital? Consider Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile,
the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the
idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning
sulfur. This is the second death.”
Right now, you may be asking, “How
can I possibly live completely in harmony with God’s priorities for my life,
when faced with daily urgencies, constant pressures, and the threats of intimidation?”
The answer is: YOU CAN’T! Not unless you make the last choice in our list, the
same one that Nehemiah made.
5. Choose the Power of
God over the Power of You 6:9b
Nehemiah knew that all of the
things he faced were too much for him to handle in his own strength… so he
prayed to God for strength! Nehemiah wasn’t just a principled man. He was a
praying man.
No one can maintain his principles
very long in his own strength. Everything I have said up to this point is
impossible for you to carry out in your own strength. You need God’s wisdom
through His Word to define your life for you in spiritual terms and the four previous
choices I’ve challenged you to make come from relying on God’s Word to define
what is right and wrong for your life. However, you need more than knowledge of
God’s Word. You need God’s strength through prayer to empower you to apply
God’s Word so that you can overcome all the forces that seek to derail you in
living a life of significance. You need to make the right choices. God has
given you that responsibility. However, you also need the strength that He
provides. He promises to give it, if you’ll ask Him for it.
