HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 796
Nehemiah
W H AT A R E Y O U T R U LY willing to give up to serve God? Could you
give up anything, everything, to serve him in a distant land? Or are you
too comfortable now to go where he leads, to step out in faith in a new
direction if he asked you to? Does the phrase sacrificial service scare
you more than excite you?
Nehemiah was a man who struggled with these
What you will be
same questions. He had worked hard to rise high
reading about
in the Persian government. He was one of the
1:1-11
closest advisers to the king himself. Nehemiah
Nehemiah’s prayer
had wealth, power, influence. He wasn’t just
2:1-20
comfortable—he had it made.
Nehemiah returns to
Jerusalem
But Nehemiah had something of even greater
worth to him—a love for God and a deep desire
3:1- 32
Work on the wall begins
to serve him even above the king. Nehemiah was
a man of God, a man of prayer, a man devoted
4:1-23
Enemies try to stop the
to God’s Word. He had a passion to please God,
rebuilding
and that passion made him a deeply spiritual
man. It also made him open to God’s call, a call
5:1-19
Nehemiah helps the poor
that was about to move him away from his life of
comfort into a new life of excitement and oppor6:1– 7:73
The wall is completed—
tunity. Would he really be willing to step out of
in just fifty-two days!
his comfort zone?
8:1-18
The book of Nehemiah is the story of a man
Ezra reads the Book of
of influence and comfort leaving it all behind to
the Law
go far away and face opposition, ridicule, hard
9:1–13:31
work, and personal inconvenience to get a job
The people confess their sins
done for the Lord and for his people. This is a
and vow to follow God’s law
book about a passion for prayer, for the Word of
God, for renewal of personal devotion to the Lord. It is a book about sacrificial
service—to Nehemiah’s people and to God. And it is a story about leadership—
rallying God’s people to a greater sense of purpose and devotion.
The book of Nehemiah is a sounding board for each of us when we glibly
speak of serving God “sacrificially.” The keynotes are simple yet profound.
Sacrificial service involves personal sacrifice, giving up something we treasure
in order to do God’s work, even in a climate of ridicule, rejection, and hardship. For some, it is leaving the comforts of home and family to serve God on
a mission field. For others, it is sacrificing personal comfort to serve God in
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