Mon.’s Devo - Grace

Read: Nehemiah 5:14-7:60; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Psalm 33:1-11; Proverbs 21:8-10
Nehemiah refused to get his paycheck at the expense of the people who were impoverished. Instead, he fed 150 of them from his own table. He was a true leader that cared about his people.
When Sanballat found out the wall had been built and all that was left was the gates, he came to deter Nehemiah’s work. He started out asking to meet with Nehemiah and when Nehemiah told him he was too busy working to meet. Next, Sanballat sent letters to Nehemiah saying he would tell the king that Nehemiah was planning a revolt against the king and self-proclaiming himself to be the king. Sanballat even infiltrated his ranks and had Nehemiah’s own prophets work against him. They tried to instill fear in him and encourage him to hide. He saw through their lies and refused to run knowing this would destroy his testimony.
The wall was totally completed in 52 days which was nothing but the grace of God. It was such a powerful miracle that it put fear in the hearts of the enemies. Now that the wall was finished, the people could come and rebuild their houses and live in Jerusalem. They took a census of all the people who had come back from exile according to their families. There were over 40,000 people.
In First Corinthians, Paul teaches the people about honoring people which is really honoring God. Making the transition from a Jew who followed the law, to a Christian who followed a new covenant was hard to do. Paul knew this and wanted them to extend grace to them. Their freedom was not to be exercised to hurt those who had not grown to embrace it yet.
We are responsible if we are the stronger one and defile someone else’s conscience that is weaker than us. We need to be sensitive to what they are sensitive to and honor them.
Lord, help us to extend the same grace to others that you have so graciously extended to us.