So part of God's story is about a guy named Nehemiah and it goes like this.
Remember God's family?
They were called the Israelites because they lived in, you guessed it, Israel!
But some of them lived far away from their home and one of those guys was Nehemiah.
He lived in Persia and worked for the King.
One day, his brother told him that a city in Israel, called Jerusalem, was suffering and many people
there weren't following God anymore, and their city wasn't in very good shape!
Nehemiah cried, "God you are wonderful, but your family's home is in trouble!
"Please help us!
"When I serve the King his wine today, make him pleased with me and have him do what I ask!"
Later, when Nehemiah served the King's wine the King noticed that Nehemiah looked sad,
so the King asked why.
Nehemiah told him about Jerusalem and asked if he could go back to rebuild the wall.
The King could have killed Nehemiah for asking to leave, but instead he said go!
He even helped!
That's because God heard Nehemiah's prayer and answered it.
Anyway, Nehemiah went to work rebuilding the wall but little did he know, he was going to
need to ask for a lot more help from God.
See, God and his family have always had enemies and these enemies wanted to stop Nehemiah
and the people helping him.
First, they made fun of him; so Nehemiah prayed again.
He said, "God, some people hate us.
"Please get rid of them!" and went back to work.
Now, God does hear and answer every prayer, but sometimes not in the way we expect or
even in the way we want and at first, it seemed like God wasn't answering this one at all
because when the enemies saw that Nehemiah was still building, they planned an attack!
But Nehemiah trusted that God heard his prayer even if it didn't feel like it.
And God did!
He caused some people to overhear the enemies' plan and warn Nehemiah; even though the enemies
were still after him, Nehemiah planned a defense and told the others, "Don't be afraid of your enemies!
"Remember the Lord, He is great and powerful!"
And on they worked...building, building, building. The closer the wall got to being finished,
the more Nehemiah's enemies realized they couldn't stop him by making fun of him or
by attacking him.
Hmm, time for something else...
They tried everything!
They sent messages to get Nehemiah to leave the wall and meet them, he wouldn't.
They hoped Nehemiah's hands would get weak, but Nehemiah had asked God to make his hands stronger!
They even paid a priest to ask Nehemiah to leave the wall and come to the temple, but
Nehemiah trusted God more than anyone else, even the priest, and he refused to stop doing
the job God had given him.
Kids, are you willing to listen to God and obey Him no matter what?
Well, finally the wall was done!
God's family got to go home again, and Nehemiah's enemies found that nothing stops God's plans.
The Israelites celebrated and praised God, and as they praised they realized how much
their sins had hurt God and they felt terrible.
They told God they were sorry and thanked him for helping them. Then they made a brand
new promise to follow Him and Jerusalem was once again a safe place where people honored
God, and that's the story of Nehemiah.
But just so you know, there's another story where God fixes something that's broken.
See, one day God would send a very special rescuer, not to save a wall, but to save the world!
He made it possible for not just Israelites, but everyone in the whole world to confess
their sin to God, thank Him for His rescue, and follow Him.
And just like that old wall was made new back then, our old lives can be made new right
now because Jesus has rescued us.
And that's a part of God's Story.