"The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes. "
Proverbs 21:1
READY TO MOVE
Read It: Nehemiah 2:6-9; Psalm 24:1
Will you be ready when God gets ready to move? If you're going to make an impact on your community, if your church is going to take part in the transformation of this society, you need to have a plan. That's what Nehemiah had. During those months he was waiting on God to answer his prayer, Nehemiah wasn't just daydreaming. He had a definite idea of what it would take to rebuild Jerusalem, and he had a definite time in mind. So when God turned the heart of King Artaxerxes around like a channel of water, Nehemiah was all set. It was divine sovereignty ereignty and human planning and responsibility working in perfect harmony. mony. Sovereignty and planning go together. They are not in conflict. Some people go to one extreme and say if God is going to do it, then why should we do anything? When He wants to make it happen, it will happen. The other extreme says we don't need God. We'll do it ourselves. Both extremes are wrong. God definitely arranged for Nehemiah to go, and go with "clout," because it was God's divine timetable. God's sovereignty ereignty is necessary, because He has to balance what He is doing in your life with what He's doing in someone else's life so that "all things work together for good." We can't do anything without God because Psalm 24:1 reminds us that He owns it all. Nehemiah couldn't have gotten those letters to the king's forest by his own scheming. But when the King of heaven decided Nehemiah needed some of His royal timber, He simply moved Artaxerxes to draw up the letters. That wood belonged to God, not to the king of Persia. But Nehemiah still had to ask. He needed a government grant to accomplish his plan, so he asked for it when he realized God was answering ing prayer and giving him favor before the king.
When you realize that Nehemiah didn't know he was going to have that conversation that day, you can see how thoroughly he had thought everything out. He knew his responsibility was to be ready when God in His sovereign wisdom said it was time to move. Think About It God's sovereignty means He decides what happens. Your planning means you are ready whenever it happens.
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