We were reminded during the weekend message that God is looking for people who are willing to be used by Him. It's true: God is looking for those who believe that He and His kingdom are worth living and dying for. The question we have to answer is, “Are we willing to be used by Him?” Are we willing to step up and make Him known, acting on the divine burdens that He has given us?
Over the last few weeks, we have been studying the book of Nehemiah, learning how he responded when God gave him a divine burden to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Last week, we saw that Nehemiah called the leaders in Jerusalem to come out of complacency and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that lay in ruins in front of them. Today, we are picking up the story in Nehemiah chapter 3. The first five verses list the people who stepped up and got to work rebuilding the walls. This was a big task, but they did what they could to address this divine burden. They used their skills and talents to help rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Throughout Scripture, we see the call for God's people to be available to be used by Him. One of these places where we see this is in John 20. This passage of Scripture takes place shortly after Jesus' resurrection when He appeared to His disciples. As He revealed Himself to them, He said to them, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you" (verse 21). Knowing that He would soon return to heaven, Jesus was calling His disciples to action. They were the ones to carry on His mission when He returned to Heaven. They had a job to do, and they were up for the task. After Jesus returned to heaven, they started spreading the good news of Christ, making Him known everywhere around them. Because they were faithful to spread the name of Christ, we know Him today.
As we think about the divine burdens God has given us, there is nothing more important than spreading the name of Christ around us. Like His disciples were when He returned to Heaven, we are His ambassadors here on this Earth. There are people all around us in need of the hope of Christ. Are we ready and willing to do whatever we can to make Him known in this dark, dark world?
Who is that one person whom you are praying for to know the hope of Christ? Reach out to them today. Send an encouraging text letting them know you are praying for them, invite them to come to one of our weekend services with you, or call and ask how you can pray for them. Whatever it looks like for you, point them to Christ this week.
Prayer Prompt: Use this prompt to guide you as you pray.
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
