A God-Given Mind to Work

I was encouraged by this exhortation today:

“Nehemiah once had what could be considered impossible task: rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  No sane feasibility committee would have given him the green light.  And yet when the task was operating under the Grace of God, what happened?  Neh. 4:6 says: “So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

When God is active His Grace means that work is done. When His Grace is absent this means that all work turns into tedium and despair.  The presence of work is toil, and the absence of work is apathy and hopelessness. But when the people of God are oriented and strengthen by His Grace, the results are very different: “The people had a mind to work.”

When you have a mind to work, the lack of resources is a detail. When you don’t have a mind to work, the most trivial obstacle can turn you aside.”

The exhortation was one to an active, prayer-and-faith-filled waiting on God’s timing for a task.  A waiting that does not commit the error of sitting back until a lightning bolt strikes your head (or some other sign), nor commits the opposite error of jumping in guns blazing apart from God’s go-ahead.  What is the go-ahead?  The mind to work, fueled by prayer, an accurate understanding of the needs and opportunities, and the faith that God’s blessing as greater than any potential obstacle.

This exhortation is from Doug Wilson at Christ Church in Moscow, ID.  You can see a video of it and his (also excellent) sermon on Bible Reading 101 here.