Prayer Call: Built by Faith, Carried by God

Good Morning, BFB!

This is a day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Today’s scripture focus: “There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.” -Ezra‬ ‭8‬:‭21‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Ezra has now been tasked by the king to build the people, to restore worship and order inside the temple that had been built. In Ezra 8, they are preparing to set out  and the king has granted them so much gold, so much silver, so many supplies, so many vessels to take back for sacrifice and worship in the temple in Jerusalem. Ezra is a very learned man. He has wisdom from studying God's Word, living God's Word, and teaching God's word. He's a scribe. He is someone who is very high in stature to be able to have the king's ear, that the king would give him all of these things to take back. One would think that Ezra, with the wisdom that he has, knows that they will probably need protection as they make this journey. This trip, that's over 900 miles, would be dangerous given all that they have been given to carry with them, and you would think that Ezra would have also asked the king for protection. However, Ezra did not, because he believed in God and he knew that they had to demonstrate faith and trust in Him because our God is a just God. If we're going to tell everybody what our God can do, like Ezra, we have to put our faith in action. Ezra was calling on and carrying the call of God - and this call that he had on his life demanded that he was spiritually prepared for this journey.

Ezra 8 reminds us that God doesn't just give the assignment, but He will give also give the protection. He will guide us and guard us through it no matter what we face in life. This is the type of faith that God wants us to have - a faith that shows no matter what we'll trust You. In these verses we see a couple of things:

First, we see that we should seek God before the journey. Before taking any step forward, Ezra lead the people in fasting and prayer. For those who have taken part in our Daniel Fast as a church body, this is one of the verses that we point to as a time when we should fast and pray - when we are moving forward with what God has assigned for us to do. Before Ezra took any steps, he lead those he was going to take back through fasting and prayer. Ezra recognized that the divine favor of God must be present in any thing that we do. He recognized that we should seek God for his guidance and protection before anything that we do. Before he started out on this journey he wanted to make sure that his actions within the call on his life were aligned with the heart of God. He wanted to show God how much he depended on  Him. Fasting here became more than just abstaining from food, it was a declaration, "We will not move until we hear from God." Sometimes in our own lives that's what we need to do. Before jumping into another assignment or something else; jumping from one job to another, or making a big decision - we need to seek God and His guidance first. Sometimes we can lean on strategy, resources or even the connections - Ezra could've easily just asked the king for protection, but he did not. No guarantees from man can top anything that we get from God.

Secondly, after we have sought God before the journey, we have to understand that God will protect what belongs to Him. Ezra made a bold decision in refusing to ask the king for an army to protect them as they traveled. Ezra had told the king, "The hand of our God is for the good of all who seek Him." This declaration by Ezra showed that he put his full trust in God's protection and that he wasn't putting his trust in man's human power. Ezra teaches us that God doesn't just bless the mission, He will guard our movements as well. When we are walking in God's will, we may encounter danger, but we have to understand that we won't walk into it unprotected. God will always shield us from dangers seen and unseen - things we don't even know are coming against us as we fulfill His call and purpose. This is encouragement for any one of us who feels exposed or unqualified for what we are walking into. Ezra shows us that we must be built by the type of faith that knows if God sent us to it, God will sustain us through it.
 
As we go through this week, I pray that we seek God before we make any decisions. That we will think about what purpose or sacred thing we are carrying - whether it's our peace, our purpose, our family, or our faith - and trust that the same God who called us to it, will also cover us through it. Let us continue to focus on building our faith because as we are built by faith, our faith will help us to realize that we are being carried by God. He's always with us, He can see what we cannot see, and He will be the one to carry us through the journey.
 
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