Thursday, November 20th, 2025
My husband and I have constructed a healthy list of initiated projects that someday will hopefully mature into completed projects. It’s amazing how some projects seem so simple yet life can quickly complicate them. Thankfully Nehemiah was better at completing his projects. It took them only 52 days to complete the wall that is somewhere around 2.5 miles long, about 39 feet high, and 8 feet wide. That is quite impressive. Like it says in Acts 5:39, this was clearly the hand of God, because no one was able to stop or even slow their progress.
Besides God’s undeniable miracle-working power, it was the faith and wisdom of Nehemiah that facilitated the completion of this project. What if he had given in to the sinful promptings of Sanballat and Tobiah? What if he had buckled under the pressure of those whom the enemy was using to try to stop his progress? What if he had tried too hard to defend God in his own power or wisdom? What if he wasn’t able to stir up an army with a brick laying tool in one hand and a sword in the other?
Sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in thinking we have to “make things work out” that we forget the One who owns the instruction manual for every situation we will ever experience. It’s not about us having the answers, working the hardest, or being perfect. It comes down to two words: surrender and trust. Look at what it says in Nehemiah 6:15-16 after the wall was completed:
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And it happened, when all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, that they were very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.
While Nehemiah certainly wasn’t afraid to respond to his accusers with truth, he didn’t waste any unnecessary time or energy on them. These verses show us that we don’t have to defend God on our own. He is more than able to defend Himself. It’s not our job to convince people of truth. Sometimes we have to love them enough to let them go so that God can do the work to help them find truth.
Final Thoughts…
If God puts a mission on our hearts He will complete that which He has started. Those prophetic words that seemed impossible have a blue print for completion. It’s not likely that the finish line will just fall into our lap. There is probably a marathon we have to participate in first. There will surely be people the enemy uses to try to push us off the path. There will be days where we just want to give up, some where we are tired and thirsty. But God. If we can surrender our concerns to Him and trust He will give us all the wisdom we need, His word will not return void. We will rebuild that wall, gates and all!