Nehemiah 1.11 is the prayer; O Lord, please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me. In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.

Things were bad in Nehemiah’s day, real bad. The nation of Israel, the people of God, were no longer living free under their own rule but were disbursed and distributed to the nations around them to live as slaves and servants of their captors. But some still had hope in God.

Believing that God does miracles through men who commit themselves to His work, Nehemiah committed himself to the glory of God which for him was the restoration of the walls of Jerusalem. Using his influence with the king, a position that no doubt took him a long time to obtain and was undoubtedly paying him good dividends, he risked all to do the work of God.

The result, Nehemiah saw the hand of God in his life through answered prayer, personal protection and successful accomplishment of his goal.

Things are bad, real bad. The world is in moral and economic crisis. The enemy of God seems to be growing stronger at home and abroad.

Yet there are some who remain faithful to God and are in positions of influence to make a different for the glory of God. These people have things pretty good in their own life. Their income is fine, their assets are fairly protected but they see all is not well in the world.

God is calling each of us to use our influence, our assets and our skills to build His Kingdom in order to restore hope, peace and joy into the hearts and minds of everyone on the planet. This work begins at the broken wall nearest to us.

If we will engage God by faith, if we will not fear the displeasure of men, if we will push all of our chips to the middle, we too will experience the presence of God and the pleasure of God as He uses our hands and our feet to do the miraculous.

Rarely does God send angels to do His work, rather, like Jesus, He extends His hand through the hands of men to touch the wounded, to clothe the naked, to release the prisoner and to restore the outcast.

If we will live in a better world, if we will live in a world that better acknowledges the One True God Who is Jesus the Lord then His people who call upon His Name must risk their success by using their influence to change the world for the glory of God and the betterment of humanity.