More thoughts...

"And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night" (Nehemiah 4:9).

So I'm super tired and am not sure how much sense I'll be able to make out of my thoughts right now, but if I don't try now, I might lose them... so I shall try!

I continued on in Nehemiah today, and one of today's verses reminded me of yesterday's. Yesterday, I discussed how Nehemiah first prayed... and then said to the king. Prayer was just a crucial part of everything he did, and he didn't speak to the king without praying first. The verse from today in chapter four showed another instance of praying before acting. Israel's enemies were rising up against them as they tried to rebuild the wall... so while under this serious attack, Nehemiah and the people first prayed... and then set a guard for protection. Both parts were crucial. We should not pray without acting, leaving everything up to God, and taking no responsibility of our own. However, we should also most definitely not act without praying, presuming that any guard we could set up for protection would really protect us against our enemies without the hand of our God. So both are necessary, and I believe the Israelites had a pretty good order here... pray first, then act. They realized, as it says a few verses later, that "by ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall" (4:10). They were in dire need of the hand of God intervening as they were faithful to rebuild this wall. But then they also realized that they had to stand up and do their part... so they "labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other" (4:17). I love that picture too! That's how we need to live... laboring for Christ with one hand, and holding our weapons for this spiritual battle we are in with the other! So cool...

One other thing that really hit me from the chapters today was in Nehemiah 6:13. Nehemiah had just met with someone who had encouraged him to hide from his enemies in the temple. He "understood and saw that God had not sent him," but that he had been sent by the enemy. But listen to this verse: "For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me." How exactly like the enemy is that? He rationalizes sin to us--through fear, desires, or whatever other methods he can find--in order to make us stumble and then be able to taunt us! The enemy is ever so good at making sin seem wonderful at first... and then just as good at taunting us about our failures one second after we've given in. Knowing his tactics is so important in order to stand against them.

Alright, I've used up just about all of the mental capacity I have at the moment, so I certainly hope it made some sort of sense. His word is so beautiful, and I'm loving reading through it. I am so grateful for His love letter to us...