On October 31, 2003, 13-year-old Bethany Hamilton was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark while surfing off the North Shore in Hawaii. Bethany survived, but she lost her left arm and more than 60 percent of her blood in the assault.
As chronicled in the movie Soul Surfer, however, Bethany refused to let her new life as an amputee cause her to give up. Instead, she relied on God to give her the strength and confidence she needed.
Bethany’s faith propelled her to continue living with zeal and has inspired people around the world as well (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Her testimony reminds me of God’s restorative work found in the book of Nehemiah. Let’s take a look at Bethany’s trip to Thailand, to minister to tsunami survivors: In 2005, thousands of children were orphaned after a tsunami destroyed homes and many lives across the massive Southeast Asia shoreline. Just as Jerusalem lay in ruins (Nehemiah 2:17), a large portion of the coast of Thailand was now in ruins.
Like Nehemiah, who told his people how God had been gracious to him (Nehemiah 2:18), Bethany shared with Thai orphans about God’s gracious work in her life. Then, ”with surfboard in tow, she slowly walked one trembling 8-year-old boy into the breaking waves off the village of Phuket. . . . After a few moments, she helped the youngster onto the board, and his fear dissolved into a broad smile.”
When Nehemiah testified of God’s goodness, the people found hope and exclaimed, “Let’s rebuild the wall!” (Nehemiah 2:18). Bethany’s faith has inspired many people to rebuild what was broken down.
Today, consider what you can share about God’s work in your life to inspire others and help them move forward victoriously in Jesus.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: 1 Peter 3:1-22
More:
Read Ezra 9:9 and consider how God lovingly continues to rebuild lives.
Next:
What do you need to ask God to rebuild in your life? How can you share God’s love and restorative power with those around you?
p170 on December 23, 2014 at 4:46 am
Amazing grace, how sweet the gift!
Gary Shultz on December 23, 2014 at 6:22 am
Thank you for refreshing us with an account of people who allow God to work through their lives. Like yourself and the others who encourage us. I like the challenge of the last sentence the best because we need to be ready to bring light in someone’s world. I hope you, your family and friends are filled with great joy and peace this Christmas Season.
sercher on December 23, 2014 at 2:48 pm
Nehemiah 2:18-20 ” Then they said, “Let us start building! So they committed themselves to the common good. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they mocked and ridiculed us…Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building; but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem.”
(New Revised Standard Version)
Every so often after we declare our New Year resolutions, we go back on our words. Whether done wilfully or due to combination of adverse circumstances, the promises once made fall through. Most probable, it may be the lack of determination that hinders us from being faithful. That was not the case with Nehemiah and the settlers, though. They undertook a task that we are rarely faced with in our lives today as we can hardly ever be surrounded with so distrustful and hostile a company of nations and people that could be called “snakes in the grass”. Nevertheless, they had a binding “common good” goal to achieve. May we also seek not just our “own advantage, but that of many.. “, bearing in mind the ultimate goal “…so that they may be saved. (1 Cor.10:33)