September 6: Nehemiah 5:14-16
 
Key Verse: Nehemiah 5:14
Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year – twelve years – neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor.
 
Devotion:
One thing I learned at an early age was any work we volunteer to do for God must not have a time limit or span imposed by us. God wants people to step forward and help where we can without worrying about how long we must do the work or when it's going to stop. God will continue to guide you in any position He has given you and will allow you to know when it is time to move on or even stop...
 
Nehemiah did not complain about how long things took, nor how long it would take them to finish the wall. Even though it took a remarkably fleeting time to fix the wall, the work was only just beginning... This brief paragraph talks about twelve years of work, not as a dull time but a time when they did not take advantage of the weak or poor, even when the law was on their side!
 
Sometimes the so-called laws of man are bent beyond belief and they become hardships instead of laws which should be protecting those who need protection. The leaders and rich people did not need the taxes of the poor to remain in power or to live on, not really. They had enough but were just being greedy to uphold a broken law. Nehemiah got them to promise to put things right and to give the poor the relief they needed to survive.
 
Points to Ponder:
What do you do for the poor in your community?
 
Have you donated to a foodbank lately?