A TIME TO BUILD: OUR ASSIGNMENT
Nehemiah 4:15 (NIV 1984) When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work. (underline mine) (See also Ecc 3:3)
Do you feel burn out in your work for God? Are you tired? Do the religious requirements that compel you seem to far outweigh the resources you possess? Does the resistance you experience dishearten you, maybe even scare you a bit? Do you wonder if you’re making a difference, if its worth the fatigue, the danger, and the toil it all brings on your emotional and physical well-being?
In Nehemiah’s day the threats to those rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem were real and seemed to bring a short pause to their work. Perhaps the builders were disheartened by the strong resistance they had encountered, for up to that point they had been working with all their heart and were even half way finished with the job (v.6). Nehemiah exhorted them to “remember the Lord” (v.14), and God moved on their behalf, disheartening their enemies, and strengthened them to return to their Divine assignment, but notice the last phrase here, “each continuing their own work.”
We each have a Divine assignment from the Lord, which is a part of a much bigger agenda. Stop trying to save the world. Stop trying to do everything in the church. You can’t! You shouldn’t! Do the work assigned to you. If you’re not sure what that is, then seek the Lord and find out. You might not be called to preach to the masses, but maybe God is asking you to teach or mentor one or two young believers. You might not be asked to lead the next great awakening, but maybe you can show the glory of God by joyfully serving in a local food pantry. Maybe you feel you have no ministry because no one listens to what God is teaching you, but those at work may listen, and they certainly observe your life – how you treat others, how you honor your employer, and how you live with integrity. What a ministry! What a Divine assignment - taking God into the marketplace! Maybe you don’t feel you evangelize enough, but you pray fervently with all kinds of prayers and requests (Eph 6:18). Where would the world be without the agonizing prayers of the praying grandmas? We each have a Divine assignment. It won’t be easy and it will have resistance, but the burden will be bearable if we do OUR assignment and not someone elses’. Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the work you have received in the Lord.” (Col 4:17 underline mine)
If you have been tired, burned out, or disheartened, maybe its time to put down some things and pick up some others, doing what God has put in your heart to do.
