The impact that a leader with a burden and a vision can have upon others is considerable. This proved to be the case in the city of Jerusalem! Nehemiah writes, ‘And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me . . . so they said, ‘‘Let us rise up and build.’’ Then they set their hands to this good work. Let us each challenge ourselves today as to what impact our leadership has upon our fellow-Christians. Does it inspire them to ‘rise up and build’ for God?

If we instill this kind of determination and commitment in them, it will unsettle our enemies and undermine their confidence. When they sought to shake Nehemiah’s resolve and deceive him into abandoning the rebuilding programme, he simply replied, ‘I AM DOING A GREAT WORK … Why should the work cease, while I leave it and go down to you’, Nehemiah chapter 6 verse 3. One Christian author has written, ‘A hundred people with a BURDEN are better than a thousand without one!’ 

As we consider the lack of wise leadership among our secular / political leaders today, let us recognise our own responsibility for the decline in standards and ask God to raise up among us those who realise that there is a great need for true spiritual leadership in our countries at the present time. May we recognise that we all have a responsibility to confess our part in the decline. Nehemiah did not set himself above everyone else or blame others. He humbly prayed to God, ‘I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which WE HAVE SINNED against You, both my father’s house and I HAVE SINNED’ Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 6. These are the words of a true leader, who stands shoulder to shoulder with his people.

When He was on earth, Jesus said of those who paraded themselves as religious leaders in Israel, ‘They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch’ Matthew chapter 15 verse 14.

Concluded