Rebuilding Your Life with Focused Determination
Announcing our next study starting on Monday, February 17th
“. . . everyone whose heart God had moved prepared to go up and build . . .” (Ezra 1:5, NIV)
My barren house echoed in silence. The emptiness weighed heavy on my soul. I still had four physical walls around me, but the support structure inside me could barely stand erect. I felt like I’d walked through a fire, and when I looked all around me, all I viewed was ashes. I’d come to the end of everything I knew, and now I needed to figure out how to rebuild my life after the loss. The enemy had seeped in and torn down much of what I loved, but I knew deep down that God was still my solid foundation. I had to believe my God was going to bring beauty out of the rubble of my life.
The hard work of rebuilding seemed beyond my limited strength. My weary heart could not find the motivation to do much. I desperately needed help. So, I determined to start my day with one focus — open up my Bible and ask God to restore my soul.
Friend, perhaps you were wrecked when someone or something you loved was seemingly eliminated from your life. We hold on to what we love with fierce determination, but then the chaos of this world mercilessly crashes down on us and smashes everything into a million pieces. We look around at all the brokenness and feel like we can never pick up the fragments and put our lives back together.
Yet, we know we worship a God who seeks to restore. Nothing in our lives remains so irrevocably fractured that Almighty God cannot resurrect. He always fights for our redemption.
The God of new beginnings and beauty might just be whispering “begin again” to your heart. For the rebuilding to start, you and I must first open up our hearts and allow the Spirit to strengthen our resolve to do the hard work required. And, we must accept the harsh reality that not everyone will be cheering us on as we decide to take faith-filled steps to restore what the enemy has schemed to destroy. Opposition will be certain, but we can rely on the help of our Overcoming Savior.
Let’s determine to start our next 25 days by opening up our Bibles and asking God to give us a fresh vision for what He wants to build in our lives. We’ll study the complicated stories of Ezra and Nehemiah as our “blueprint” for restoration. Remind yourself that the hard work ahead will be totally worth it, and don’t forget that God has lessons for us to learn along the way:
why our sacrificial faithfulness to do what God says today sets us up for success tomorrow
how to guard our hearts from discouragement when negative voices seek to deter us from our divine purpose.
where we should wisely invest our time and energy to gain the resources we need to renew our souls and remain resilient
Nehemiah shared that the wall was rebuilt because the people “worked with all their heart.” (Nehemiah 4:6, NIV) You and I can do the same. We can put our big girl pants on and dedicate our all as we do the hard work of rebuilding our lives with focused determination.
Let’s get started. . .