Tim Cruse | August 5, 2017
In the book of Nehemiah chapter 13, the prophet asked the Lord three times to remember all he had done for Him, His people and His house. He had led the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and had reestablished the people in the worship and service. He had put God and others before himself. The enemies of the Lord, however, tried to frustrate Nehemiah’s efforts.
We must be reminded that God’s servants and their work for Him will always be demeaned and disparaged by the self-willed and self-serving. We must also remember the promise of Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”
Others may forget what we have done for them (Isaiah 49:15,16), but God remembers all we have done for Him and will reward us in His time. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
2. “Undertake for me”
In Isaiah 38:14, King Hezekiah cries unto the Lord upon the occasion of his impending death. God had sent word through the prophet Isaiah for the king to set his house in order, “for thou shalt die” (verse 1). As he humbled himself in verse 2 and asked God to remember his faithful service in verse 3, God said in verse 5, “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”
Hezekiah recounts the words of his prayer in verses 9-20. The word undertake in verse 14 has the thought of to braid and to intertwine. It also carries the thought to be surety for, a guarantor as in a cosigner. When he cried, “undertake for me,” he was asking God to enter into his situation with him and to pick it up where he left off or came up short. Praise God that He will do just that! He hears our cry of invitation to step into our desperation and to make up the difference as a cosigner would.
3. “Help thou mine unbelief”
We read in Mark 9:14-29 about a young man who was demon possessed and his father who asked Jesus for a greater faith to believe in our Lord’s heart of compassion and ability to deliver his son. He found that in Christ “all things are possible to him that believeth.” Oftentimes we have a measure of faith and are struggling with a confidence of faith. God can not only increase our faith, but He also wants us to know that it’s the object of our faith that matters most. A little mustard seed faith in a great big God can see the impossible made possible.
Perhaps you know deep in your heart God can, but you are really wondering if He will in a certain area of your life. Ask God to come along side of you and relieve your wavering confidence in His promise. Hebrews 11:33 says that through faith His people “obtained promises.” That means that by faith they held to the promise of God until that promise was realized on their behalf. Hold to the promise of God and you will find the God of the promise holding you! “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
If you have lived for the Lord for any length of time, you have taken your licks and learned many lessons. One thing we learn is that though we can be too strong for God to use (II Chronicles 26:16), we can never be too weak (I Corinthians 1:27). Don’t disqualify yourself because of your weaknesses. God is drawn to such that He may show Himself strong on our behalf.
Whatever we face along life’s journey, we have the assurance from God through the promise of His Word that He will remember who we are and what we have done for Him, that He will enter into our trials with us and make up the difference where we come up short, and that He will bless our true faith in Him.
Is your heart crying this hour? By faith, lift your cries unto Him that “heareth, and delivereth.”
Remember me
Undertake for me
Help thou mine unbelief
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