We are returning to our theme today ‘More Than Survivors’. Our hope in this series is to get some new victory in living. Christian life is more than coping – its having some times where you feel that things are getting better and that your relationship to God is more solid.
We have looked at the idea already that you improve your spiritual life if you make conscious choices to do so. Even if you fail on some of your choices, that’s better than not making any. Many people fail because they never try. And we looked at fleeing temptation. It is not good enough to say ‘no’ to temptation. Most of us aren’t strong enough to do that. If you are an impulse shopper and spend more than you have, then going to the mall to window shop will always get you into trouble. You win over temptation before it gets started.
Today we are looking at resouling. I think this is an invented word. But if you want to work on your spiritual life, you have to resoul – get your soul stabilized. A lot of people want more inner stability. When I am talking to people, I often ask if they are interested in spiritual things. Do you know that 99 out of 100 people really are interested in spiritual things? I can only think of one person that I know that is a cheerful atheist and expects that there is nothing after this life. Most people will gladly start to talk with you about their genuine desires to feel confidently guided in their decisions, peace with their moral desires, and sincere wish to be as good friend as well as find one.
The difference between success and failure for most people spiritually is that some people have dreams about spirituality but never start to reconstruct their soul – to resoul. We are going to look at Nehemiah today as he rekindles the spirit of a nation. My prayer is that you leave with a plan to do some resouling of your own.
Nehemiah was captive with Israel in Babylon. The area of the world under so much turmoil now was a military power in ancient times. Israel lost the war and mass deportations stripped the land of all Jews except the weakest and poorest. I am sure that many died in the forced exodus. When the Khmer Rouge overcame Phnom Penh, one of the images that still pains my heart is doctors being forced to leave patients in the middle of operations. If you have gone through a war experience, then you may know the uncertainty and despair that brings the soul into shambles.
Nehemiah has a dream to restore the people as a nation and the king holding Israel captive agrees. I want us to focus this morning on the spiritual aspect of the rebuilding. Especially if you are from another homeland, you may get requests from family, friends, and churches for money. And perhaps you have responded generously and sometimes you are disappointed that the project did not really work, even with your gift. In many cases, any step forward in our life that works also requires a spiritual step forward. If Nehemiah had just taken the people back to Israel as a dispirited group of refugees, prematurely aged by war – getting the strong spirit of hope and faith for a new nation would be impossible.
When someone in Cambodia asks me for support, I immediately consider whether they are going to build the people support to receive the gift. I worked with others 10 years ago to build some wells. We meant well in a nation where only 4% of the water is drinkable. But we did not build in the people support – persons in Cambodia who were ready to care for the wells and protect their use. The wells were soon polluted and useless. Now I look for a church that sees the need for clean water and takes on the glad duty of a steward because they believe God has new hope coming for their community.
I think Nehemiah is doing the same thing here. He makes an assessment to see what building plan is needed and how to start talking about a vision that will draw people on board.
If you are going to resoul in your life, you need to start with an assessment. Let us each use our imagination. I am going to give each of you 2 points. I’m famous for giving out points and people are always asking me what they are good for. Well, today they qualify you to receive one strategic material for resouling. You already know what you long for most – maybe its peace in your spirit with God, or a happier family, or better self discipline with food or money or sex. If you want peace with God, you need a daily time to pray and read the Bible. If you want a happy family, you need a new family covenant and a regular meal together. If you want self discipline, then you need a buddy to pray with once a week who will ask you how you are doing. --- so now take a moment to consider what you want most because we are planning to get that for you.
Great! You have chosen and now we award each prize, regular devotional time to you over there, and new family agreement to you in the back, and a prayer partner here on the side. Of course this was all in our imagination. But what is so impossible about making it truly happen? It requires our conscious choice to resoul. Putting a new habit in your life never feels natural at first. Just ask someone who has gone through physical therapy. Or someone who changes jobs and suddenly has to get up an hour earlier. But the truth is that regular adults all the time start new habits. You can do the same thing with these spiritual structures. Maybe you will fail a couple of times. But God delights in our attempts and I promise you that God will add blessing to your life for trying. Maybe God will make it easier than you thought just because you tried. Maybe God will suddenly bring you a friend to help.
But it all starts with your assessment as to what you need most and then planning and starting to try. Was Nehemiah’s dream reasonable? Do you think that he sometimes wondered if it would ever succeed? And yet he resouled a nation, so they could dream new dreams and hope new hopes. God wants that for you.
