Work

work:  1. activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.

wonder:  1. desire to be curious to know something.

“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.
Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?”
~Nehemiah 6:3~

“When they saw the courage of [these] …ordinary men,
they marveled [were filled with wonder] and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”
 ~Acts 4:13~

Which of us, desiring to embark on a project, does not first sit down and consider the investment value and if we will reap the benefit if its fruit? This is the sentiment of Proverbs 31:16, “She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.” This is also the question posed by Jesus in Luke 14:28. We wonder about our work, and we wonder if things will work out.

My husband recently took the plunge to begin his masters degree. There were not a few questions and eyebrows raised at his undertaking this endeavor, but he had been considering it for several years. Now began the extra labor on top of the current “fields” he had already been managing and harvesting the fruit thereof. Does the work decrease? Far from it. Was it a sound decision? Well, no doubt that it will take faith to carry on and many late nights to see the work accomplished.

Sometimes, we wonder if we ought to do this thing or that, or we wonder if we hear the voice of God, or we wonder if we are using sound judgment. Wonder is to “be filled with marvel” or to figure out a course of action and what path is a sound decision. In the book of Nehemiah, he also—when he heard of the demise of his beloved city Jerusalem—was stirred to action. He counted the cost and faced the challenges both of opposition and the monumental task of gathering materials and laborers; his demonstration of strategy and tenacity did not come without first assessing the situation. But God had prepared Nehemiah prior to this point, equipping him for a new task he was about to undertake.

“God visits a soul when He brings before it…a new range of opportunities…
at some time to which all that precedes has led up,
and from which all that follows depends in its solemn history.”
~Henry Parker Liddon~

In elementary school, I remember the anticipation of receiving Scholastic Book Club’s mail-order books. I loved perusing the pages and circling my top three favorites. I would save my allowance to order, and I’m confident my parents would help fund the orders, as well. One time, I ordered a Choose Your Own Adventure book, which I still have to this day! At the end of a few paragraphs, the reader could select if he wanted the minuscule character to “hop on the shoestring and catch a ride to who-knows-where” or “face the giant cat with unknown consequences.” Unlike a Choose Your Own Adventure, God does not leave us guessing or playing Russian Roulette; on the contrary, when we seek God’s guidance for our lives, we can trust that he will “show [us His] ways and teach [us His] paths” (Psalm 25:4).

Nehemiah had been given a new range of opportunities; God had prepared him to face those challenges up to this point in his life; ultimately, Nehemiah did not shrink from devoting himself to the cause.

“Never shrink from deep devotion,
because you fear its trials or its sacrifices.”
~William R. Huntington~

“Half our difficulty in doing anything worthy of our high calling,
 is the shrinking anticipation of its possible after-consequences.”
~Henry Edward Manning~

As we step forward into a decision, we must have faith that “God releases abundance according to our capacity to manage and steward well” (Bill Johnson). As my husband would say, if you’re trusting in the Lord, you can trust He is guiding you where your foot lands. Life is more about how you live it than what you do. There can be multiple paths that are in the will of God, but as long as we’re yielding to Him with a posture of the heart that honors Him, we can trust that He is leading us right. Just like the men from Acts 4:13, people take notice when you’re walking with God, though we be “ordinary.” It takes courage to step into a new path. It is the Deuteronomy 8 challenge for us to occupy new land, trusting that God leads us and will provide the manna. God led the Israelites into land in order to occupy it; it is so even for us, and He will occupy through us every space that we occupy, so that as we represent Him in character, the people around us will benefit from the blessing of the goodness of God on our lives (Bill Johnson).

Nehemiah ached to be a part of the solution in rebuilding Jerusalem. We need not wonder if we are cut out for the work that is set before us, for if we have a godly appetite to offer kingdom solutions to our earthly problems, He will use us in ways that are significant and life-changing. The reward is standing back in wonder that God uses us and what He can accomplish through us as ordinary men and women of God.

“Be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
~2 Chronicles 15:7~

“Do the work that lies before you.”
~Joshua 1:4-9~

“No matter what obstacles lay ahead,
he would roll them over on God and let Him do the managing;
as for himself, he would pitch in head first, give it his all,
and let the Enemy take the hindmost.”
~Fr. Timothy Kavanaugh in Light From Heaven by Jan Karon, p. 38~