Problem
You have a critical project. You are consumed with the details. It is filling your every waking moment, every corner of your thought. The problem is it is a project that is not part of your current responsibility. But it is at the core of what drives you. You are doing your work, and doing it well, but the challenges of the project are eating away at you. It shows. Your countenance is affected.
Your boss notices that something is eating at you. He asks what is bothering you. He is a powerful, demanding, and terrifying man. He literally has the power of life and death over those who work for him. Should your answer displease him, you will die.
Possible Solution
You take a deep breath and reveal your project. To your surprise your boss asks what he can do to help. Here is a man with unlimited earthly resources. Who can literally solve your project’s challenges with a word. How do you respond?
Response of Trust
If you are Nehemiah you don’t, immediately. First, you pray.
That is not my normal response to an offer of resources. My first response is gratitude for the offer. But Nehemiah was made from different cloth. He knew the ultimate source of the offer. He went to his Lord in prayer before he answered the Lord’s unexpected earthly conduit, Nehemiah 2:4.
In challenges we tend to trust what we know, our planning, our logic, our ability to raise resources, and plan their efficient use. Nehemiah later in the book exhibits all of those qualities we value in a leader. But the first thing he did, and continued to do till his project was complete, was to trust not the earthly source, but the ultimate source of the resources. He trusted God.
First he prayed.
You have a critical project. You are consumed with the details. It is filling your every waking moment, every corner of your thought. The problem is it is a project that is not part of your current responsibility. But it is at the core of what drives you. You are doing your work, and doing it well, but the challenges of the project are eating away at you. It shows. Your countenance is affected.
Possible Solution
You take a deep breath and reveal your project. To your surprise your boss asks what he can do to help. Here is a man with unlimited earthly resources. Who can literally solve your project’s challenges with a word. How do you respond?
Response of Trust
If you are Nehemiah you don’t, immediately. First, you pray.
That is not my normal response to an offer of resources. My first response is gratitude for the offer. But Nehemiah was made from different cloth. He knew the ultimate source of the offer. He went to his Lord in prayer before he answered the Lord’s unexpected earthly conduit, Nehemiah 2:4.
In challenges we tend to trust what we know, our planning, our logic, our ability to raise resources, and plan their efficient use. Nehemiah later in the book exhibits all of those qualities we value in a leader. But the first thing he did, and continued to do till his project was complete, was to trust not the earthly source, but the ultimate source of the resources. He trusted God.
First he prayed.
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