Bold Following

I haven’t played “Follow The Leader” in quite some time. I used to play it with the children in kids church many years ago. There is a great lesson in that simple little game. We often played it under the guise of “Simon Says”. The idea was to only do what the leader says after he says, “Simon says….” It’s a fun game and if the leader is really barking orders quickly, it can be stressful and hard to follow.

The Lord had given Nehemiah a pretty big project to complete. The Lord provided resources through the King of Persia and the Lord provided protection and counsel to Nehemiah as he was leading. The enemies of Nehemiah were threatening him telling him that they heard that he was going to be king of Judah and that they were reporting this to the King of Persia. Nehemiah rebutted them multiple times. Check this out…

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

9 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.’

15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (Nehemiah 6:8-9; 15-16 NIV)

I loved Nehemiah’s confidence in the Lord. He prayed that the Lord would “strengthen his hands”. That is a confident and bold prayer. He wasn’t backing up or backing down. Nehemiah kept his eyes on the “big ball” – getting the wall completed and the gates installed so that the city would be secured from many outside threats. The Lord was with Nehemiah because he was faithful to the work the Lord had called him too.

I want to be bold in following the Lord. I know it might not appear popular, but I do believe it always the right thing for me to do. If I will spend time with the Lord, He will speak into my heart the next moves I need to make. I’d rather be unpopular, picked on and put down but still be following the Lord’s lead than to be popular and well known. I want my confidence to be in the “unseen Presence” of God. I want to be an obedient, faithful & bold follower God.

Pressing On!

Dwayne