1.You must be righteous before him (1:8).
I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.
God’s servants must be willing. A proud heart cannot be used by God; He needs us to be soft, mold-able clay, ready to be turned into beautiful jars. This starts with us admitting our faults and sins towards God and seeing ourselves for what we truly are: sinners saved by grace.
2. God will give you success (Nehemiah 1:11).
…Give success to your servant today…
Now, don’t freak out!! This is NOT me selling you the prosperity Gospel. That understanding of the Gospel deeply misunderstands the sufficiency of Christ—that the whole point of getting saved is that you die to self because Jesus died for you. That means I am no longer my own, and my highest goal is living for the one who died for me.
Therefore, the success that God gives us is the fulfillment of His plan for our life. Though we may live in a teeny tiny home, though we may never be rich and famous, we can live a truly successful life because we are living out the Bible. We are being renewed daily and changed to be more like Christ.
3. You will have favor (2:6-8).
…And the king granted me what I asked…
This doesn’t mean that you’ll always get your way, or that people in power will go along with whatever you say. But there’s ample biblical evidence that, often, God does give His people favor in the eyes of certain people. In the Bible, that’s usually rulers. Daniel and his friends had favor in the eyes of the king, as did David and even Moses (on and off).
4. God’s hand will be upon you for good (2:8, 18).
…the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me…
…I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good…
Sometimes this is only apparent after the situation. There have been many times in my life that are bitter, but later looking back I see the sweetness (thus making it a 90% bittersweet dark chocolate bar, to make a very specific analogy).
For example, growing up, I was pretty ornery and didn’t want to do house-wife-y things like cooking. But when I had my health problems, I was forced to learn to cook because I couldn’t eat what my family members were eating. Fast forward to three years later, and I’m out in LA on my own…cooking for myself literally every day. Knowing how to cook already was SUCH a lifesaver, and just one less thing to worry about as I prepared to make the trip out here.
Were the health problems fun? Absolutely not. But, I would say God’s hand was still on me for good because it refined me in so many ways.
5. You will inspire some… (2:18)
And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
The people that join you may be few. But when God’s people are bold and loudly share their love for Him and obedience to His will, other Christians can’t help but gravitate towards that. Our serving and obeying encourages serving and obeying in others.
6. …And you will be despised by others (2:19).
Aha, here’s the bad news (finally—you knew it was coming). As much as you will inspire others, you will also gain enemies.
…they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
Here, Nehemiah and his crew are first mocked—“What is this thing that you are doing?”—and then condemned—“Are you rebelling against the king?”
One comment is rude and degrading, but the other is dangerous. Being accused of rebellion is not something to be taken lightly in that day and age.
Yet Nehemiah stood strong. He didn’t answer to men—He answered to God.
Which point most resonated with you?
