Day 4: Taking Stock

“Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.” - Nehemiah 2:15

The book of Nehemiah is one in which we can learn a lot from. It speaks about responsibility, intercession, partnership with God, leadership, and so much more.

When we consider how we can apply this to finishing a season and transitioning into the next, we can learn from how Nehemiah assessed the situation before him and deployed a plan to move ahead.

Many people have accepted where they are in life. Though they are not pleased and know this is not God’s plan for their life, they have just accepted the situation as their lot. There are multiple reasons why this occurs, but if we had to sum it all up, we would say it is often due to disappointment, discouragement and a lack of vision.

We often shy away from confronting problems in a bid to avoid overwhelm, regret, and what we sometimes call “opening a can of worms”. This approach to life is not God's plan, as He does not intend for us to constantly brush things under the carpet and ignore the signals He is giving us. He wants us to be able to partner with Him to bring lasting solutions and get on the path He designed for us.

In the case of Nehemiah, we see from the first chapter that he was not happy with the state of the city, Jerusalem. He was deeply troubled as he heard about how his people had been disgraced and things were not great at all. It broke his heart, but Nehemiah did not dwell on the situation at length; rather, he prayed to God, sought His direction, and then took the necessary steps to implement a solution. He could have wallowed, complained and been discouraged. In Chapter 2, he proceeds to take some time out to assess the situation so that he can make a better judgment call and implement a plan to rebuild the wall.

When we take inventory of our lives, we will more than likely come across things that do not seem favorable; things that we do not like and would love to change. The first step to bringing about change is to identify and acknowledge the issue(s). Denial, pretense, or lying to ourselves will only keep us bound. Taking stock should be viewed as an opportunity more than anything. It is an opportunity to get things right, to learn from past mistakes, to celebrate the wins, to avoid establishing unnecessary patterns, and to help establish a forward plan. Most importantly, it is an opportunity to partner with God.

The beautiful thing about taking inventory is that there is already a plan written concerning our lives, so we should do so with the assurance that God has a plan and with the truth that we are already victorious. Everything we do should be from a place of victory, as Jesus has already won it all.

If you would like to download a workbook to help you carry out this process, please use the link below.

https://www.moadiah.com/mwm/year-in-review