Overcoming Problems: Planning - Active Expectation

Focus passage: Nehemiah 2:1-10

For the want of a burger and fries, Ted missed his plane. 

He was, after all hungry, and so he decided to grab a fast lunch when the woman at the gate said that their flight would be delayed because of a minor mechanical problem. He returned 15 minutes later to see his plane pulling away from the gate. Sometimes, you have to act like you expect a solution any minute. Nehemiah believed that the Lord would rescue the Jewish people. He prayed with confidence and was ready when the opportunity for a solution presented itself.

• Never give up praying v. 1. He began his prayer in the month of Kislev, the answer came four months later in the month of Nisan. He prayed regularly throughout those months letting the Lord help him get his thoughts and plans together and helping him know what was needed. Most of us would have given up much earlier, but Nehemiah held on to the idea that God would do a miracle in His time.

• Be ready for the opportunity v. 4. The answer to his prayer came without warning. The king noticed his grief and gave him an opening to ask for help. He could have stumbled and brushed off the king’s concern, yet the months of prayer had prepared him for this moment. We often get upset when prayers go unanswered, but sometimes God is preparing us for something so big that we can’t handle it without His training.

• Have courage to ask for something big v.5. Only a fool or a man whose heart has been prepared by God asks a king for a big favor. Nehemiah asks the king to send him to build a wall that the king had stopped from being built (Ezra 4:21). Nehemiah believed that the Lord had brought him to this opportunity and that the king would agree to do the impossible.

I can think of few times when I have prayed for months for something that great. Nehemiah believed that God would keep His promise (Nehemiah 1:9) and he never let go of that conviction. God used the time to prepare Nehemiah for this great mission, a mission that he was not prepared to do when he first heard the news. Active waiting is an act of faith. It happens when we see the importance of the ministry and the greatness of our God. When others give up, we keep praying and believing so that the Lord can prepare us to do the impossible. The four months were not wasted time, but time for Nehemiah to plan and for God to empower Nehemiah and his plan. “Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” Psalm 27:14