| Rebuilding in 2008 |
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I love New Years! It's a great opportunity to make life changes. I spend the last weeks of the year looking back over the past year and deciding what I want to do differently this upcoming year.
This year is going to be a year of rebuilding for me and my family. We have been in limbo and turmoil for over 2.5 years. It's time to start over and rebuild.
I am studying the book of Nehemiah and trying to get to know Nehemiah a little better. I read through Nehemiah last night and now plan to go back through it more slowly. He was an incredible man of God. In the book of Nehemiah, he led the people to not only rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, but to rebuild their faith as well.
The most striking thing about Nehemiah was his prayer life. He prayed about any and everything.
2:2 And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing else but sadness of the heart." Then I was very much afraid. 2:3 I said to the king, "Let the king live for ever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lies waste, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" 2:4 Then the king said to me, "For what do you make request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 2:5 And I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it."
That is how Nehemiah handled things -- he didn't take matters into his own hands. When the king asked him this question, it was very important that he give an answer that would please the king. He knew this was something he could not do on his own, so he prayed to God and then he answered.
I know I need to be more like Nehemiah. I try to handle too much on my own - in my own way - by making my own plans -- however when I am confronted with a difficult situation, my first response needs to be like Nehemiah - to just pray.
Another part of Nehemiah that I was excited to read was Chapter 9. It sounded just like our church service a couple of weeks ago:
9:2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 9:3 And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; for another fourth of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.
I know there are things that I need to confess to the Lord and to my children for ways I have not handled things as I should -- for my anger... my bitterness... my unforgiving spirit.....
My family cannot be rebuilt without doing many of the things that Nehemiah led the people to do.
I am looking forward to learning more about Nehemiah over these next couple of weeks and then starting the New Year fresh and ready to rebuild both my own life and my family.
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