Making Resolutions that Last

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

Making Resolutions That Last: Nehemiah as a Model

What we want to deal with this week in the dailies is to take a look at Nehers' resolutions, well resolutions in general. Most people at this time of the year, at the beginning of the year, think about resolutions.

And we want to take a look at one example from scripture of someone who made a resolution. And what we end up seeing in the book of Nehemiah, that not only did he make a resolution, but his resolution came to fruition.

Many of us would love for our New Year's resolutions, like getting in shape and losing weight, to come to fruition, but you know what, most of us make those resolutions without a real serious concern for it being completed.

We say it, we would like it to be true, but we don't really want to put the hard effort into making it come true. And a resolution requires certain things, and as we go through this, you're going to realize that Nehemiah wanted to make a resolution.

He was successful in his resolution, and to be successful, he needed to rely on God. Through prayer, he was serious about it, through his fasting, he made a plan, and he even prepared for the unexpected, and he came to a conclusion that at the end of the work, maybe at the end of the year for you, you can have that resolution say, checkmark, it's done.

Why? If you follow a pattern of being serious about it and not being flippant of just saying, well, that's what I'm going to hope for for this year's New Year. No, make resolutions with serious commitment, and make those dependent upon God.

And so here's a wrap-up from this week's Daily Episodes for you to take a listen to and maybe you'll make changes in your life, make resolutions that will last. As we start the new year and people make those New Year's resolutions, it's a time to actually figure out why it is many people don't fulfill those New Year's resolutions, and what we can do to actually fulfill them, and what we're going to do is take a look at Nehemiah.

Yes, that's one of those Old Testament books, you know, that passages that most people kind of skip right over, the Old Testament, because we like the New. Well, there's a lot we can learn in the Old Testament, and Nehemiah is an example.

Nehemiah Hears of Jerusalem’s Ruin and Begins to Mourn

Now, what you see in Nehemiah chapter 1 is that it happens in the month of Cheleb, in the twelfth year that he was in Susa in the Cynadel. So he's giving us an exact time frame. That becomes important that we're going to see later on, maybe not in this episode.

However, what you see is that he hears from his brothers about what's going on in Judah, and he's concerned. So in verse 4, it says that on, as soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days and continued fasting and prayer before God of heaven.

So what you have is, here he hears about the fact that the remnant that went back to Judah from their captivity, they weren't doing well. The things were not thriving as he hoped, and here he is weeping and he's mourning.

In other words, he's going to actually set a resolution. We're going to see what that resolution is, but what we're also going to see is how long it took for this time. Now, he was a cupbearer. That becomes an important role that we're going to see in the next episode, why that's an important role and how long he actually took to pray.

Four Months of Prayer and Fasting Before the King

Now, as we see, Nehemiah was praying. And how long was he praying? Well, we see this in chapter 2, verse 1, where it says, in the month of Nisa, in the twelfth year of King Hezekiah. So now we know, now you say, well, that doesn't help me very much.

Well, that was about four months of time. So for four months, Nehemiah was praying and fasting. Now his role was as a cupbearer. The cupbearer was an important role because the king could be poisoned.

The cupbearer's job is to actually test the wine or anything that he drinks and to make sure that everything would be safe and not poisoned. Pretty important role. But it seems he had time off from this role because we end up seeing that he now comes before the king and he can't have a sad face before the king.

And verse 1 tells us his presence was sad, which could be deadly because if the king doesn't like your sadness, he ends up killing you. So in verse 2, the king says, why is your face sad, seeing that you are not sick?

So they could see that he's not sick, but he's sad. He was mourning over what was going on in Jerusalem. And he was praying for all those months. And it says in verse 2 that he was afraid. And the thing that you see with resolutions is that resolutions take serious prayer.

It's not something that you just go, I'm going to make this resolution and forget it. No, Nehemiah was praying for a long time with fasting. There was concern to make a change. And we end up seeing that he's going to take advantage of that change because of his role as cupbearer.

We're going to see that in the next episode, what he did to make change. So here we see Nehemiah, he's got that serious desire to make change in his life because he's seeing what's going on in Jerusalem and he's not happy about it.

He's praying and fasting for them. He now stands before the king and he's got a sad countenance, which is not what you're supposed to do before the king. And in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 3, it says, not only that he was afraid in verse 2, but verse 3 says, and I said to the king, oh, let the king live forever.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves lies in ruins? So he mentions to the king what he's sad about. And the king says to him, what are you requesting? You see here, notice that it is clear to the king that Nehemiah is making a request.

And what does it say? He ends up saying that Nehemiah's first act is to pray. So I prayed to the God of heaven. He was already praying all the way through this. So this isn't just the flippant prayer.

No, what you end up seeing is Nehemiah had a plan. We're going to end up seeing in the next episode how much of a plan. But you see that he knew he was going to be before the king. He knew that he can make a change.

It's not just, hey, let me make a change for a month or two. He makes a change that he knows is going to change the rest of his life. And he has to be committed to it. And so what you see is that Nehemiah is going to go before the king and make this request.

But what does he rely on throughout all of it? He relies on prayer, even before he makes a request that he planned out. Now what was this commitment that we see from Nehemiah? Well, in those four months, I think, that Nehemiah was praying and fasting for Jerusalem, I think he was also planning.

He was getting a plan ready. You want to make resolutions in your life, you want to make changes. It's not going to come just by saying, I feel like getting in shape this week. Or this year I'm going to lose weight.

With no commitment and no plan. You see, Nehemiah had a plan. He depended on prayer. He was serious to that. You see that in the fact that he was fasting over this. But when he has the opportunity and the king says, what is it that you're making a request of me?

He has a plan. And so he lays out his plan. How thoughtful was his plan? Well, as you end up seeing later in Nehemiah, we won't have time to get into it, but you end up seeing that he anticipated the fact that those who were in Jerusalem who didn't want things to change were going to send letters back to the king to say, oh, look what's happening.

He's trying to create his own kingdom and overtake you. But he knew that because he already had letters from the king. It tells me that he thought through the objective. He knew what was going on. He knew that there were the troubles that they were having in Jerusalem, and he made a plan that would have the handling for those contingencies.

If you want to make resolutions in your life, lasting resolutions, then you not only have to pray about it, you not only have to be committed to it, you have to have a plan. And that plan must think of the contingencies, what's going to happen, what are the excuses and how to plan for that.

Nehemiah’s Commitment, Planning, and Preparation for Opposition

Now, as we've been talking about resolutions and how to make and get resolutions that you're going to actually fulfill, we're looking at Nehemiah just in chapter 1 and 2. But as you go through the book, you end up seeing that Nehemiah made resolutions.

And we end up seeing at the end of the book, he kept those resolutions. They made a lasting change, not only for him, but for an entire nation. And it starts with the fact that Nehemiah not only prayed, he had commitment to it.

He ended up taking advantage of opportunities he had to make that commitment, sure. But he was committed to this with a plan. He thinks through this plan. Now, it ends up seeing, as you read through the rest of the book of Nehemiah, he ends up going to the land, he scopes out the area, and he says, nobody knew what he was doing.

He was scoping it out. He's making sure that the plan he had will work. And then when opposition came, he was prepared for that because his plan handled the contingencies. Now, did they handle everything?

No, they didn't. Why do we know that? Because even though he planned for people to make accusations and send word back to the king, and he had letters already from the king for that, what you end up seeing is he realized that there was also some warfare that was going on, and he needed to prepare for that.

And that is why they ended up building by their own homes to protect their own family with one hand a sword, the other hand doing the work. And you end up seeing that he knew this was going to happen, and they finished the work even though the enemies didn't like it.

He had to deal with other things like people taking advantage of one another. He had a plan. He kept to his commitment.

That's how you make resolutions. This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.