Actual Work! (3)

Nehemiah 3
Start with your faith. What condition is your faith in? Faith is the means by which you receive everything you need from God. If your faith is defective, your relationship with God is defective. The Bible says: Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would come close to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11.6. If you are not living by faith each day, you are displeasing God. Instead of him looking with favour on you hour by hour, he is frowning on you and wisely withholding blessing from you in case you foolishly assume that he overlooks your faithless, self-centred activity. If you are to come close to God, your faith in him must be alive, active and all-pervading through every single circumstance of your daily living. You must live with the settled conviction that God is. Believe that he exists and is the all-knowing, all-powerful, always-present Creator and Owner of everything, including you! It will cause you to tremble in case you offend him or ignore him. Once your faith is anchored in what Christ can do to make you the son or daughter God can love, you will always be certain that God is for you. God is very pleased when you are looking toward him for everything and living as one of his dependents and he will bless you as a loved child. And when trouble comes, as it certainly will, your faith will give you eyes to recognise that your Father is still working out everything for your good.

You must take the Bible and pray in the Holy Spirit so you can examine the condition of other vital aspects of your life, too. Check on your love. Examine the condition of your joy. How strong is your peace? Is self-control holding up and defending you from temptations? Rebuilding the personal walls of your spiritual life is having more of Christ’s life in yours. This is your daily work. You must become whole and strong. You must build every day.

Abraham did this heartfelt self-evaluation when he was called to God’s work. That work was to raise and teach a son. It says in Romans 4.19 that he ‘faced the fact that he was as good as dead’ when it came to producing a son. But he believed that God could do what HE had promised and in this way overcame both his doubt and his personal inability.

You and I need to face the fact that we are as good as dead when it comes to building up a proper, powerful and pure life, but that we can be rebuilt in Christ. This is exactly the point at which the Evil One, Satan, comes in; he pours cold water on your faith. At the very least he wants crippled Christians. He wants you to give in to defeat in as many areas of your life that he can ruin. He wants you to sit amongst your broken down walls, and pick through the rubble of your best efforts for a few miserable scraps of comfort. He does not want you to be a building, growing, confident and joyful Christian worker.

Each person needs to do what Paul recommends in Romans 12.3:
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Discover your areas of weakness and get building with Christ!
Nehemiah checked the walls to see where there was something worth building on and where there was only rubble to be removed. He was prepared to face the real situation. You must do the same for the state of your personal spiritual condition.