As God’s children, He expects us to rest. Slaves cannot skip a day of work to rest, but free people can. Machines run until they break. Bosses who don’t care about their employees use them up and then they spit them out. Are you a slave? Are you a machine? Is your boss a taskmaster?

You might ask, “What is your point?” My point is that in the church we tend to see Jesus just like we see ourselves, and that’s okay, as long as we recognize our bias and don’t force that bias on others. Because, when we push for our bias in the church, we exclude people who aren’t just like us from the church.

This week in our study of Nehemiah, we saw that Nehemiah had to persevere through criticism and discouragement. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you one of my favorite scripture verses and one of my favorite poems about perseverance.

We have a task before us. Our task is to take the good news of Jesus to the city of Litchfield. A great task, yes. But we can do it by working together. We can do it by focusing on Jesus and not worrying about who gets the credit. That’s what God’s team does.

Do you have a rebuilding project? Don’t lay a brick until you first pray.

Nehemiah 1:1-4

Do you have a rebuilding project? Don’t lay a brick until you first pray.