Word Up – Progressing Through When God Presses Pause
Today’s Word Up Live we examined the building of the wall around Jerusalem supervised by Nehemiah.
Life is challenging when God presses pause, Nehemiah teaches us how to move forward in our wait without losing sight of the Person of our Faith.
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Progressive perseverance is steady continuous movement with purpose.
It’s not:
- sitting still, paralyzed by the pause
- bulldozing our way to the finish line.
Waiting is not a time to be stagnant; it’s a time of action, but action directed by God not our own plans.
Oswald Chambers hit the nail on the head when he said “waiting isn’t a time for spiritual sulking and feeling sorry for yourself just because you can’t see an inch in front of you.”
- Progressive Perseverance starts with prayer. Nehemiah started praying before he ever left his cupbearer’s position. Take not of his prayer. He never asked God to hurry up the plan or why the trouble was happening. His prayer consisted of confession, praise, and begging for favor. He uses the word please three times. (Nehemiah 1:5-11 NLT)
- Progressive Perseverance faces insults and opposition but doesn’t lose focus of God. For every moment of successful building Nehemiah and the Jews faced combative taunting, mocking, and teasing. Their enemies took every advantage of every opportunity to sabotage their work. We have an enemy, who wants to sabotage our wait. When God presses pause, Satan applies the pressure. (Nehemiah 4:1-2)
- Progressive Perseverance knows continued prayer is a necessity not an option. Peppered in between the wall building drama you will find Nehemiah on his knees. After ugly word and taunting tort, the prophet stopped to pray. He regularly took his complaints and concerns right to God. Too many times I take my complaints to my friends so they will get mad with me. Misery loves company, right? Well, our Father knows misery so let’s keep company with him.
- Progressive perseverance holds onto the Word of God. Nehemiah writes in chapter 4 that neither he or his men put down their weapons. (Nehemiah 4:23) As they made progress, they held a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other. Our weapon of warfare against our enemy is God’s Word. (Ephesians 6:17) God’s Word gives us everything we need for life and living. Reading and applying His truths will help us make the most of our waiting.
Sometimes waiting is necessary. We don’t always know why. Maybe it’s to see God’s glory and experience His power in a way we wouldn’t have known had we not been put in place of pause. No, we might not ever know the why but thanks to Nehemiah we know the how.