CALLED

"...And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of God upon me."
-Nehemiah 2:8

Here is the story of Nehemiah with a commentary by David Guzik. I just found it and he says pretty much the same stuff I was going to put on here, but his is a lot longer.

Wouldn't it be amazing to experience what Nehemiah had experienced? To get the hand of God upon your life, here are some things to consider:


1. We need PASSION for the work of God

We seem to find ourselves with our passion elsewhere; maybe we're too caught up in school or trying to have fun with our friends instead of God. We need to be praying to God for help and thanking him for all He's given to us, which gets us to my next point.


2. We need to have PASSION for prayer

We don't pray because we don't believe that it will actually do anything, but we need to believe that it works; we need to pray with faith.

7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Matthew 7:7-12



3. We need a PASSION for purity

We will be tempted a lot of times throughout the day and we need to walk away from them. Peter went back to fishing before Jesus came back to them. We need to turn away from sin and want God's purity. Confess our sins and just thank Him is a quick start for this.

And finally..

4. We need a PASSION to be used by God

Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer and because the king trusted Nehemiah as his cupbearer, Nehemiah was able to go back to rebuild Jerusalem. We will be in situations where we will be frustrated and feel that whatever we're doing isn't worth it, but God does things for a reason. This can help us have a passion to be influential in our communities.

And seriously, how cool would it be to have the hand of God upon our life?