For maximum benefit, please read Nehemiah 2 BEFORE reading my post.
DESTINY--that sounds like a serious, intimidating word, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but my mind conjures up grand-scale adventures and awesome, larger-than-life historical figures, such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon, George Washington, Moses, etc. However, I’m talking about “little ol’ you” and “little ol’ me.” Today we are going to ponder the fact that God created you with a specific destiny in mind. Granted, most likely our destiny will not be forever immortalized in history books, but in God’s eyes our destiny is no less important than anyone else’s. It’s true. I hope to drive that point home to you as we continue today’s lesson. My heartfelt prayer for you today is that God will deeply touch your heart as you ponder your own destiny in Christ.
Please take a moment and pray that God will help you to know and appreciate your personal destiny and purposes.
I am certain that when Nehemiah began fasting and praying incessantly for God to allow Jerusalem to be rebuilt, he had absolutely NO idea that God had placed that burden on his heart because God had chosen HIM to lead the entire project. I definitely get the sense that God began to reveal His plan to Nehemiah slowly over the weeks that he fasted and prayed. Almost four months passed from the time when Nehemiah began praying and fasting until he approached the king to ask permission to rebuild Jerusalem. I believe that during his time spent in prayer God began to show him specifically, step by step, His plan to successfully rebuild this city—how to get volunteers, how to ask the king, how to acquire the necessary resources, etc. , until finally he understood that God wanted HIM to lead this project.
This tells me a couple of important things:
- God will instill a passion in me for certain things for which others will not have that same passion. That God-birthed passion is God’s way of leading me in the path He has chosen for my life. I can choose to give life to that passion and seek ways to satisfy that passion, or I can choose to ignore it and miss out on deeply fulfilling experiences and rob others of a chance to be blessed as I use my passion for Him.
- In order to grasp God’s plans and purposes for my life, I need to seek Him regularly, spend time in the Word, and specifically ask Him to SHOW me my destiny in Him. When I ask, He will reveal His plans to me, oftentimes slowly, as He did with Nehemiah.
Reading between the lines of the text, it is a pretty logical conclusion that Nehemiah was very scared to follow through with God’s plans for him (Nehemiah 1:11-2:5).
- Even though he knew that God had called him to complete this project, he was still scared that the king would get angry and say no (or do worse to him). (Neh. 1:11)
- In Nehemiah 2:2, he readily admits that he was “dreadfully afraid” when the king asked him what was wrong.
- Before he specifically requests permission to rebuild his father’s city, he—right in the middle of his conversation with the king—prays to God (Neh. 2:4). He would only pray in the moment like that if he were scared.
When God gives us marching orders that are way out of our comfort zone, it’s probably perfectly normal to be scared—in fact, it would be inhuman NOT to be scared. :)
HOWEVER, fear is definitely NOT a free pass to ignore God’s marching orders. On the contrary, fear can be our greatest stumbling block to fully realizing our destiny in Christ; I know that’s true for me … bigtime. As I’m writing, my mind is reeling with examples of people who overcame their fear and achieved the impossible because of it, as well as others who allowed their fear to rob them of becoming all that God had created them to be.
Long before Nehemiah was born, God created him for certain purposes. There were certain plans that God designed, and He created Nehemiah with the unique qualities and gifts which would enable him to fulfill those plans in a way that only he could do. We’ll discuss this more in depth later.
You are no different—long ago, God designed you in His mind for specific purposes, and He gave you the unique traits that make you YOU—the good as well as the bad. That unique combination of traits will allow you to fulfill His purposes for your life, whether you think yourself capable of fulfilling His plans or not.
Nehemiah was not expecting God to give him this overwhelming task, but He did. Nehemiah was certainly afraid, at least initially. BUT, Nehemiah did something that we can learn from: he did it scared. He rose above his fear and perhaps feelings of inadequacy and obeyed God. He didn’t approach God with a litany of excuses why God should not pick him or why he is not the best candidate for that task. He just quietly obeyed in fear and trepidation.
You were created with a specific purpose and plan. You are not some random happening of the cosmos. God intentionally created every part of you, and He is excited to watch you fulfill your destiny in Him. We will touch on this theme at least a couple more times during our study.
As we end our time together today, I hope that today’s message sticks to you like super glue for the next several days. If this seems overwhelming or you have a really hard time believing that you have a destiny that God has planned for you, please pray right now and ask God to help you believe it. You truly are so precious to Him.
Please read these Scriptures as a final piece of today’s lesson.
- Psalm 139
- Jeremiah 29:11-13
- Isaiah 43:1 (He knows your name!)
- Isaiah 54:17 (He has your back!)
- Romans 5:6-9 (He loves you!)
God bless you! :)
I would love to know if God spoke to your during your reflection on Nehemiah 2 or while reading today's post!
Comments
Thanks for posting! 😊