Nehemiah 2: 1 says...In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes...
Nehemiah 1:1 says...In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year...
I LOVE THIS! I could stop the study RIGHT HERE and it would have been worth it! (but I won't)
In 1:1...the month of Kislev is the November/December time frame.
In 2:1...the month of Nisan is the March/April time frame.
The math...+, -, *, / = 4 months
Yes, 4 MONTHS had gone by since Nehemiah had heard the news from his brother, Judah, and he had been in prayer the WHOLE time, BUT he still had not taken action. He waited until he felt confident about what God wanted him to say.
In the Beth Moore study I am doing, she says it like this:
"When we hear a call from God, we take it not as a call, but as an appointment. We react to it, as if something has to be done NOW. In reality, the call is God's call, and will be done in God's timing. It is our job to listen for the heart of God, pray for guidance, and WAIT...."
This is SUCH a great illustration for me. It's given me the opportunity to think about when I am in action mode, prayer mode, or preparing for prayer mode.
Are there places that you are taking action when you should be waiting? Are there places where you want your timing verses God's timing?
Please feel free to share and dialogue in the comments section.
Looking forward to it!
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I can't begin to tell you the number of times I jumped right in without waiting to see if that was what God wanted me to do or not. I'm not always very good at praying before decisions. I think back over my life and think that - maybe - if I'd spent time praying about a decision or an action or a call I may have moved in a different direction. A long time ago, Mark and I met with a young single mom who was struggling with how she interacted with her pre-teen son. We coined the phrase, "stop, drop and pray" to help them both when they were impatient with each other. Stop - talking, Drop - to your knees, Pray - seek God's guidance and will. I need to take that advice myself.
ReplyDeleteIf you remember, the four month lapse between hearing and acting was the first thing that caught my attention. There's a reason for that! :}
ReplyDeleteCan't tell you the number of times I jumped into action--or DIDN'T because I'd been burnt so badly in the past that I didn't trust what I had heard.
The one comfort I have in that is that God knows our hearts. He knows that when we jump out, we are doing it because we are trying to be obedient to His call--and when we don't, it is usually because we are trying to be obedient to His call... Hahaha
I sllooowwwlllyyy came to the conclusion that I needed to wait for a bit when God placed something on my heart--not talk about it, not proclaim it, not organize a group to get it done--but wait. I think that realization is borne from maturity. Who knew?
When I spotted that 4 month wait in Nehemiah, it was an "ah-ha, I was right!" kind of feeling. Then Beth added an assurance to that by expressing the situation so well.
so glad I've caught up with this study!
:) Deb
That is so right. Sometimes I get what I think to be a GREAT idea and want to get right to it. Betty, I agree, looking back sometimes I wonder what path I would have taken if I would have spent time in prayer before acting.
ReplyDeleteRight now I am praying on a major decision. I humbly say that it has been one on my mind and in prayer for several months, not sure exactly how many. I have a meeting this week that will let me know that if the time is now or not. So, this study is right on for me! Seems every sermon, study I look at is all talking about the same thing. God is so amazing!