The Daily Walk | 06.04.2026 | Dan Stephens | Nehemiah 7:4

It's Thursday and I'm Dan.

Welcome to your daily walk.

This is the last day of Vacation Bible School at our church, and tonight is Family Night, starting at 6 p.m.

I hope many of you can come out and celebrate what a wonderful week of VBS we've enjoyed.

Now on to my encouragement for today, which is to flourish where you're planted.

It says in Nehemiah 7.4 that the city was wide and large, but the people within it were few and no houses had been rebuilt.

Wouldn't it shock you to know that scholars believe that roughly 50,000 Jews returned from the Persian Empire to Jerusalem in the initial phases of resettlement, leaving well over 90% of Jews who did not return?

Why in the world wouldn't more of them want to return to Jerusalem?

After all, we're talking about the city of David, and Psalm 48.1 goes so far as to declare it to be the city of our God.

Why wouldn't everyone want to live there?

But when you take just a minute to think about it, you and I know that God isn't confined to this or that city.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 asks, Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Now there were many reasons why the vast majority of Jews decided to stay put.

Many were living lives of comfort and prosperity in Persia, Babylon, and surrounding areas for generations.

Their homes were established, along with their businesses and communities, and Jerusalem had largely been in ruins and lacked economic infrastructure.

Some might even say that the non-returning Jews were blooming where they were planted.

They would continue to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob where they were.

And let that be a lesson for all of us.

The Spirit of God lives in us if we've been born again by trusting in Jesus alone as our Savior.

And we can worship the Lord no matter where we live.

Isn't that wonderful?

Have a great day, everyone.