Doing A Good Work and the Plains of "Oh No!"

For some reason, I’ve been spending A LOT of time, recently, in the Book of Nehemiah.  Even, today, as I was driving out to a job site, I pulled up Nehemiah on my cell phone and listened to someone with a British accent (which I just LOVE) read the first six chapters.  It made for a fabulous drive.

For those of you who may not be familiar with Nehemiah, Nehemiah was a prophet in the Old Testament that God raised up to help the Children of Israel to not just rebuild their community but to reestablish themselves as a people devoted to God.  If you’ve never read the book of Nehemiah, I HIGHLY recommend reading it.  It’s a wonderful story that’s just chalked full of image after image of how God comes alongside us—His people—to help us rebuild our lives and to reclaim that which was lost.  Give it a read sometime, and, if we ever get the chance to talk, I'd love to know what you think.

Okay…a little from the actual book itself…

There’s a really cool passage, at about the half-way point in the story, that I want to hone in on tonight as I kick-off the weekend.  The passage is found in Nehemiah 6:1-9, and it reads as follows:

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it—though up to that time I had not yet set the doors in the gates— Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”

But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”  Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.

Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written:

"It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together.”

I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”

They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this passage.

Doing a Good Work

How many of you can say that, in your life, you’re doing a good work?  It is my most sincere and genuine hope that ALL of you just shot your hands up quickly in response to my question.

For those few of you who didn’t, will you do me (and all of us, actually) a favor and just throw them up there any way?  As an act of faith?

Let NO ONE tell you otherwise.  YOU are doing a good work.

Do you know that doing a good work has NOTHING to do with how good or bad you think you might be or how close to or far from God you might feel in this moment?  NO!!  It has NOTHING to do with your feelings; it does, though, have EVERYTHING to do with God and His pre-planned work in and through you.   

Again, you, my dear brother or sister, are doing a good work—whatever it might be.  If you are a sincere follower of Jesus, I guarantee that YOU are doing a good work.

And that work—even in the midst of the sinful state of your soul—was ordained by God long before you were born...long before you set foot on this planet...long before your Mom and Dad even knew each other.

It’s true, my friends.  ABSOLUTELY true.

In Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul writes, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

You, as a blood-bought, child of the Most High God, are His workmanship.  And you have been created to do good works, which, as Paul wrote, God—and NOT you—created (or prepared) in advance for you to do.

In Philippians 2:13, which was also penned by Paul, we read, For God is at work within you both to will and to do His good pleasure.

In this very moment, God is working in you and in me to give us the desire and the ability to do that which pleases Him.  He’s the Author of it—all of it—from the beginning to the end.  From the very first spark of desire all the way to the actual doing of that which pleases Him.  And it's THAT very thing, my friends, that comprises “the good work” that God, in direct partnership with you, is up to in your life.

The Nehemiahs and the Sandballats, Geshems, and Tobiahs

God has a brilliant and wonderful plan for your life...right now, in this very moment, as well as globally, meaning, over the entire course and breadth of your life.  Despite how “sinful” you might feel—and we are ALL dreadfully sinful—because of God’s grace, He is working in and through you to accomplish something grand.

While there will be some in your life, like Nehemiah, whom God will bring alongside to train, mold, support, encourage, correct, and challenge you, there will be many, too, who, when you encounter them, will do nothing but try to thwart that which God wishes to accomplish in and through you.  These people—and, sometimes, he or she might, actually, live right inside you (or me!)—are, what I like to call, "The Sanballats and Tobiahs of Life," who, it would seem, wish only to distract you and I from that which God has ordained for us.

Have you learned to recognize them yet?  If not, ask God to help you begin to do just that, and He will.

You are doing a good work, my friends.  A GREAT work, in fact.  Keep it up, and keep at it, okay?  Despite what some might tell you, you ARE doing a good work.  I urge you to follow the example of Nehemiah and resist the Sanballats and Tobiahs when they poke at you…when they goad you...and try to coax you to “Come…meet together…on the plain of Ono.”  When such things happen, may something within you rise up and say, “The Plain of Ono?  OH NOOOO!!...ABSOLUTELY NOT!!  I'm carrying on a great project, here, and can't go down.  Won't go down.  Why should the work stop while I leave it to go down and meet with you?” And, if they persist, resist all the more, knowing that God  will “strengthen [your] hands” in response to your asking Him to do so.

If there's one thing I’ve learned in this life, it’s this:  And that is that God loves me and that being in the center of His purposes and plan for my life is the happiest, safest, most fruitful place on earth.

Stay the course, my friends, and hang in there, okay? When tempted to leave your post, stay where you are in your Father's Hands, stand your ground, and resist any urges to dessert the great work you and He are doing together.

To help in times of crisis, consider adopting the following slogan:  Beware the plains of “OH NO!”  I've found such a thing to be immeasurably helpful in my own life.  May you as well.

Prayers falling your way, y'all...

Dave