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A MIND TO WORK AND PRAY (XI)
LORD’S DAY, FEBRUARY 1 MORNING
Nehemiah 4:12-23

Luke 9:23-26, 57-62

 

“For whosoever
will save his life,

shall lose it…”

 

A MIND TO WORK AND PRAY (XI)
 
Apart from proper planning and preparations, and adjustments and flexibility in view of unplanned eventualities, success of any endeavour, especially spiritual endeavours, require sacrifice and commitment. The people involved in the process and progress of building the wall had done much and prayed much, but much was still expected of them. They worked at repairing the wall, bearing the loads, clearing the rubbish, and repelling the enemy, yet for the work to be completed, they had to make sacrifices.
 
So we laboured in the work (Neh 4:21). The efforts of Nehemiah and the builders in their service, as portrayed in Nehemiah 4, have through the ages been turned into a proverb, “The Sword and the Trowel,” depicting dedicated service, a work that was accomplished amidst great opposition and conflict. In Hebrews 12:1-2, Paul presented the picture of the cloud of witnesses and the testimony of Christ, and exhorted believers to sacrificial endurance in service. He told them: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin” (Heb 12:4). From the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 to the halls of church history, God’s work and service had required of many great sacrifices. Even today, the same sacrifices are required of us. Nehemiah recorded men giving of their time, serving “from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared” (Neh 4:21) for added progress since their labour force was halved. Others gave up their homes to lodge within the city so that their presence and availability might offer additional efficiency in service and security ensuring that “in the night they may be a guard to us, and labour on the day” (Neh 4:22). Everyone sacrificed for the work of the building of the wall to ensure it be completed successfully. Nehemiah himself recorded of the sacrifice he and those who were with him had to make stating that “none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing” (Neh 4:23). The mind to work must be a mind willing to sacrifice, and be able to say with David: “Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing” (2 Sam 24:24).
 
THOUGHT: Sacrificial service honours the God we serve.

PRAYER: Father, may my life be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.

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