Sometimes in life, to move forward, you first have to rebuild. But let’s be real, nobody likes to rebuild. Rebuilding implies that something has deteriorated or is no longer what it was supposed to be.
Nehemiah is a biblical character in the Old Testament, who was living in exile in a foreign land, when God called him to return to Jerusalem, to rebuild the walls that had been torn down.
The broken-down walls were a big deal. They represented protection and defense from foreign enemies, but even more importantly than that, they represented home. The walls spoke to the identity and legacy of the Jewish people.
It’s a fascinating story! And it was 94 years from the time the walls were torn down until Nehemiah returns to rebuild them. Ninety-four years where the people got used to living with torn-down walls. Ninety-four years of walking in the rubble.
See, you can get comfortable in the rubble, if you’re not careful. But with the God’s help, and rallying the people together, the walls that were torn down for 94 years were rebuilt in 52 days! That is the power of God at work.
It is the very nature of God to restore broken things.
Right now in your life, you might feel exactly like these people who were living in Jerusalem with torn-down walls. What areas in your life feel broken down right now?
If we’re honest, everything that may have broken down over the past year and a half cannot be blamed on the pandemic alone. We may have had a hand in some of the things that broke down in our lives.
Kevin Myers, founding senior pastor at 12Stone Church in Atlanta, Georgia, said you must “Go back to the basics where things broke in the first place, in order to move forward.”
At Harvest Church, we’ve recently taken that advice to heart, to rebuild some things that have broken down. For example, we returned to one service, instead of two.
We’ve called our church family to come together again, to rebuild and move forward. Our “new” service time is the same time we started with in 2007 when Harvest began — 10:15 a.m.
As we gather as a church on Sundays and throughout the week, we are getting back to the basics of life and faith, to those places where our relationship with Jesus began to drift in belief and practice.
Like the walls in Jerusalem, we’re focusing on those areas that need rebuilding. This is not retreat. This is rebuilding.
If you find yourself walking in rubble right now in your own life, know this: Rebuilding is possible! Take stock of where things are. Be honest about what happened and what needs to be rebuilt. And then move to action to rebuild what has broken down.
Nothing is more empowering then when you take the steps you know you need to take to rebuild.
