When Your Vision Is Failing

Last week we talked about the importance and power of having vision, of having a clear mental picture of a preferred future. Vision propels you into the future, it compels you to keep on moving, even when circumstances get rough. I have become a firm believer that a having a Godly vision for the future is often the one thing that keeps me getting up in the morning. Vision is that powerful.
But though vision can be a very powerful thing, it is at the same time a very fragile thing, as well. Remember that a vision always seeks to address the needs of people, and for that reason a vision always involves change. Change always involves risk. Risk always involves the possibility of failure.
A vision is powerful, but it’s not risk-free. If it was, it wouldn’t be vision. It would be a plan. It would be the status quo. It would be free from aggravation, it would be safe . . . but it would not be vision.
Now, I’m sure that all of the plans you’ve made in your life have worked out perfectly . . . but let’s just say for the sake of argument that you’ve had some disappointment in your life. Let’s go further than that; let’s say—again just for the sake of argument—that you’re experiencing some disappointment right now. You have dreams that aren’t coming true. You thought you could make a difference, but you’re not. You were so sure that you heard from God, you prayed and thought and planned and in your mind and heart you were 110% positive that your vision was a God-inspired, God-honoring vision for a preferred future . . . and nothing’s happening. Nothing. What do you do now? What do you do when your vision is failing?
Nehemiah faced that very thing. He didn’t have the best of stonemasons to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall . . . he just had a handful of volunteers and a vision to get it done. He didn’t have the best materials, just what was lying around and a vision to get it done. He did have plenty of opposition from neighboring governors and from some of the Jewish nobles themselves, but still he had a vision to get the job done. But here’s the thing: it wasn’t getting done.
Nehemiah 4:1-3, “When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble-- burned as they are?" 3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "What they are building-- if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"”
This man Sanballat is the most powerful political figure in the region, and he is feeling threatened by the possibility of a new, safer Jerusalem. So he ridicules the workers: Nehemiah’s vision of a rebuilt wall and a safe Jerusalem is a joke! The Jews don’t know what they’re doing! Their building materials are shoddy, and their workmanship leaves a lot to be desired.
So naturally, the workers themselves are starting to lose heart. Nehemiah 4:10-12, “10 Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall." 11 Also our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work." 12 Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."”
Nehemiah’s vision of a safe Jerusalem is crumbling like the fire-scorched stones he’s trying to use to rebuild the wall. It’s enough to make any man give up and walk away. You can just imagine Nehemiah saying to himself, “Maybe they were right after all . . . this vision wasn’t a God idea. It can never be done. I’m going back home to my old job of serving wine to the King.”
But that’s not what Nehemiah did. Andy Stanley, author of the Visioneering book I mentioned last week (you really have to read it!) notes that though Nehemiah’s vision was crumbling, he took three steps that helped him live in the tension of an unrealized vision. He took three steps when his vision was failing.
The first thing that Nehemiah did was pray. The first thing I want you to realize about Nehemiah and prayer is that he prays constantly. The first thing he does in the book is pray. The last thing he does in the book is pray. The thing he does in the middle of the book is pray. He realizes that he can’t accomplish anything without God’s guiding hand, so he makes sure that he stays in tune with God by staying in touch with God.
The second thing about Nehemiah is that he doesn’t resort to some wimpy prayer, some emotional cop-out that allows him to keep a mask of civility. Is God honored when we wear a mask before Him? No!
Nehemiah is ticked! He’s trying to get something done, and these dudes are getting in the way, mocking his workers and demoralizing them! So Nehemiah approaches God honestly. In effect, he says in verse four, “Look, God those guys over there are throwing egg on our faces. We’re a laughing stock. Take care of those nay-sayers for me, because I’ve got better things to do than mess around with their crap.”
Nehemiah is frighteningly honest with God! His prayer may not be very nice—he is, after all, praying that God will wipe his enemies off the face of the earth and hold their sin against them—but at least it’s honest. At least it shows what he was genuinely feeling.
You see, sometimes God waits for us to get honest with Him before He’s willing to work with us. We use all the flowery, proper, polite prayers that we can, and God sits there, waiting. “Uh huh . . . When are you going to come clean with me?” But when we finally get tired of being polite and take the masks off, take the gloves off, and get right down to the nitty gritty with Him, it’s like he says, “All right! Now there’s something I can work with!”
See, at the very least a gritty, honest prayer says to God that we still trust Him! We still want to hear from Him! So when your vision is failing, don’t be afraid to wrestle with God. He understands what you’re going through, and it doesn’t honor your relationship with Him at all to pretend like everything’s just hunky-dorey when you talk to Him. He will not reject you for being honest with Him, because as a believer you are connected with Christ. If God were to reject you, He would first have to reject His Son. He will listen, because His Son died for you and God Himself promised that because of that He will always listen. God is waiting for you to get honest with Him.
Once he prayed to God, Nehemiah then remembered. Nehemiah 4:14 14 After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, "Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
It’s not that some memories just popped into his head, but instead Nehemiah deliberately sat down and reflected on what God had done for him so far. You can just hear Nehemiah’s thoughts: “Well, how did we get into this mess? Because God said to rebuild the wall. How did I get here? Because God moved the King to allow me to come and rebuild the wall. Why did the king give me the stuff to rebuild? Because God moved his heart to do it.” And on and on . . . Nehemiah could run through a lifetime of God’s faithfulness to him, and then he could run through generations of generations of God’s faithfulness to Israel. Time after time after time how God had pulled their fat out of the fire, how God had lived up to His promises, how God had been there ever-present help in times of trouble. “Why are we trying to rebuild the wall? Because God put it on my heart. This isn’t my vision . . . it is God’s.”
Nehemiah remembered! And he tallied up his memories, and the final answer was overwhelmingly in favor of God’s faithfulness and provision. God had been there all along, orchestrating each event behind the scenes, consistently and faithfully working to bring about His desired ends. It didn’t matter what the present circumstances were, God was working through all of it.
Nehemiah took three steps when it seemed his vision was failing. The first was? He prayed. The second was? He remembered. And the third was that he revised his plan.
It sounds so nice and spiritual to say that we’re going to stick to our plan. “No matter what happens, I’m going to stick to the plan that God gave me!” Well, let’s make a distinction there. Write this down: “Visions are refined”—they don’t change—“Plans are revised”—they rarely stay the same.”
Your plans are just that: your . . . plans. But the vision God has given you? That’s from His heart. Our plans must change as circumstances change, but the vision remains a constant. A vision is what could be and should be, but a plan is just your guess as to the best way to accomplish the vision. There is not a single person you are ever going to meet who accomplished anything significant for the Kingdom of God who didn’t have to revise their plans multiple times before their vision became a reality.
So Nehemiah revised his plan. Rather than simply going back to work on the wall and trying to pretend that the circumstances surrounding him weren’t changing, he revised his plan. Nehemiah 4:16-21, “16 From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. . . . Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, 18 and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. . . . 21 So we continued the work with half the men holding spears, from the first light of dawn till the stars came out.”

Nehemiah’s vision was failing, and so he prayed, he remembered, and he revised his plan . . . and then he got back on with the task of working to make his vision for a safe Jerusalem a reality.
Those are the three steps that Nehemiah models for us when it seems our vision is failing. Three steps, but there is only one reason why Nehemiah felt he could carry on in the midst of great trouble. That reason is because Nehemiah’s vision was firmly grounded in God’s vision. Remember that at that time God’s people were exiled in Babylon. They had been for many years. But God had promised them in Jeremiah 29:10-11 10 This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Nehemiah first heard of a Jerusalem where the people were “in trouble and great distress.” They had no hope, and the future was bleak. But Nehemiah knew of God’s promise to estore them, to raise them up again . . . and to one day bring forth the Messiah from them. Nehemiah’s vision to rebuild the wall is connected to God’s promises . . . and so should your visions be.
There is only one source of true comfort that you can have today. Only one source of true strength. God’s vision for you is grounded in the hill of Calvary, and as we said last week, His vision is for you to receive, and then to carry, the life and light of Jesus Christ into the preferred future that He has envisioned for you.
He has plans for you! Plans to give you hope and a future! Plans to prosper your family and not harm them! Plans to use you as His instrument of blessing that lonely young boy you met downtown, plans to use you to carry His message of precious salvation to your sick neighbor.
Andy Stanley says, “Once you have made a connection between your vision and God’s charge to you as a believer, your vision will transcend mere circumstances. You won’t be launching a company, you will be financing the great commission. You won’t simply be raising children, you will be influencing a generation. You won’t be holding your marriage together, you will be reestablishing God’s order in society. When we couple our personal visions with God’s sovereign plan, we leverage the future.”
Your vision is failing? Mere circumstances do not stand a chance when your vision is firmly connected to God’s promises of life and salvation in Jesus Christ. Opposition may arise, doubts may come, circumstances will change, but a vision embedded in the bedrock of Jesus Christ will not be undone. It cannot be defeated! On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand! . . . All other ground is sinking sand.