Christian Devotional – January 7, 2020

Day 7 – Single-mindedness focus. Nehemiah set about understanding the situation he was in, and he did so without any distractions and without any hesitation. Read Nehemiah 2:13-16.

So I went out at night by the Valley Gate in the direction of the Dragon’s Well and on to the Refuse Gate, inspecting the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were consumed by fire. Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass. So I went up at night by the ravine and inspected the wall. Then I entered the Valley Gate again and returned. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; nor had I as yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the rest who did the work.
Nehemiah 2:13‭-‬16 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/neh.2.13-16.NASB

Nehemiah knew and understood exactly what God had for him. He knew the burden of his heart. And as a result, he was able to focus exclusively and specifically on all the things that needed to happen in order to resolve this. When he got to Jerusalem, he didn’t waste any time. He started assessing the situation immediately. But, he didn’t want a lot of distractions so he didn’t include a lot of people in his plan at this point.

He wanted to understand exactly what God was going to do and where they were going to start with this. When God gives us a focus, how focused are we? Do we understand and keep in mind that nothing else should happen besides what God has given us to do? Are we willing to set aside anything that may get in the way of that focus?

Nehemiah didn’t let anything get in his way and he quickly assessed the situation, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Are we that focused on what God has for us today?