Friday, August 19, 2011

God Uses Burned Stones

Nehemiah had watched the walls of Jerusalem crumble in fire at the hands of the Babylonians and felt called to rebuild the wall. With nothing left but rubble, he approached the throne of King Artaxerxes to ask for favors--Nehemiah wanted the King to send letters of recommendations to the area rulers for timber and supplies so the rebuilding could begin. Although the King did, the governors didn't oblige and were angry Nehemiah was helping the Israelites. Nehemiah pressed on with what was left of the wall.

Instead of using new building supplies, God wanted Nehemiah to use the burned rubble to rebuild the wall. After 52 days, the wall was completed. Nehemiah 6:16 says, "When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God."

If God has called you to do something, He will give you the faith in His promise to see it through. But He may want you to start with the rubble of what's left. He may want you to rebuild with the burned stones in your life. However, He will make your faith stronger than it was before where you can say, this work has been done with the help of my God!

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