Whether you realize it or not, people are watching your life.
Your children are watching. Your spouse is watching. Your parents, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and people in your community are watching.
If you openly identify yourself as a follower of Jesus, there's an important question worth asking:
What do people see when they look at you?
Do they see a life that cannot be explained without the presence of God?
Or do they see a life that looks pretty much predictable or even sometimes disappointing?
Followers of Jesus are called to bring people to Jesus by bringing Jesus to people—living like Jesus among them so that our lives point beyond ourselves to God.
Jesus described it this way:
Matthew 5:14–16 (ESV): “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
That's the goal.
Your life has always been meant to be a much bigger life than just your life.

Your Life Is Meant to Reveal God's Glory

Throughout history, God has revealed His glory through His people.
God told Joshua and Israel to march around Jericho and watch what He would do.
Gideon faced an enormous army with only 300 men.
David faced Goliath without relying on the armor and weapons everyone expected.
Jehoshaphat went into battle with worshipers leading the way.
Again and again, the point wasn't how impressive God's people were.
The point was how great their God was.
Their obedience created opportunities for God's power and glory to become unmistakable.
But Israel didn't always live that way.
There were times when God's people ignored His presence, denied their identity as His people, forgot His purpose, forfeited His place, and embraced the idolatry of the nations around them. And so God would allow the people of the world and the things of the world to consume them. All the way to the point of having their key city Jerusalm being torn down, and later having the people being taken captive…
Then came Nehemiah.
God used him to challenge His people to remember their God, rebuild, and once again live as God's people, in God's place, filled with God's presence, pursuing God's purpose—all for God's glory.
The question for us is deeply personal:
What would it take for God's glory to become increasingly visible through your life?

Wishing for Change Isn't the Same as Pursuing It

By Nehemiah 6, something remarkable had happened.
Nehemiah 6:15 (ESV): “So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.”
For more than a century, the walls had remained broken.
Then the rebuilding was completed in 52 days.
What changed?
Nehemiah didn't merely wish things were different.
He grieved over the absence of God's glory. He ached over it. He prayed about it. He planned. He boldly asked. He went. He fought. He encouraged others to fight alongside him. And he continued seeking God through the entire process.
He saw the work through.
Maybe you want God's glory revealed through your life.
Maybe you want it revealed through your marriage.
Your family.
Your workplace.
Your neighborhood.
Your church.
But there's a difference between wishing for something and ordering your life toward it.
Are you praying for it?
Planning for it?
Fighting for it?
Encouraging others toward it?
And are you willing to develop the discipline necessary to keep going?

Your Daily Habits Are Building Something

“Discipline” isn't always a popular word.
But without discipline, it's difficult to repair the walls in our lives that desperately need to be repaired.
Christian discipline is expressed through the daily and weekly habits that help form us as disciples of Jesus.
Our marriages need habits.
Our families need habits.
Our spiritual lives need habits.
Our church involvement, finances, relationships, and service require discipline.
There's a powerful truth I heard someone say recently:
Repetition is powerful; it will either build you or bury you.
One tiny habit repeated every day eventually isn't tiny anymore.
It compounds.
It stacks up.
Eventually, it becomes part of who you are.
So take an honest look at an ordinary day in your life and ask:
What am I repeating every day that's keeping me right where I am?
Then ask another question:
What could I begin repeating every day that would take me where I believe God wants me to go?
Change what you repeatedly do, and eventually you're doing more than changing a day.
You're changing your life.

What Could Change If You Changed What You Repeat?

Imagine committing to uninterrupted time with your spouse every day.
What could that do to your marriage?
What if praying together became a regular part of your family's life?
What if you consistently discipled your children by “seasoning” your conversations with God's Word everyday?
What if gathering for worship became a genuine priority for your family each week?
What if you intentionally spent more time with people with whom you share a common future, not merely people with whom you share a common past?
People who care enough about Christ in your life to stand up for your life in Christ.
Small, repeated decisions can become part of a much bigger story.
And eventually other people may begin noticing what God is doing.

Live So That God Gets the Credit

When Jerusalem's wall was finally finished, even Nehemiah's enemies noticed.
Nehemiah 6:16 (ESV): “And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.”
That's the goal.
Not:
“Look what I accomplished.”
But:
“Look what God did.”
Imagine someone looking at your marriage and saying, “There's no way you two could have done that on your own.”
Good.
Mission accomplished.
Imagine someone who knew the old you looking at your life today and realizing something has happened that can't simply be explained by willpower.
That's what Jesus described:
Matthew 5:16 (ESV): “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
People see the work.
God receives the glory.

God's Restoration Is Bigger Than You

The rebuilt walls weren't simply a construction project.
Once the walls were completed, worship began to be restored. Singers and Levites were appointed. The people were restoring a culture that had been lost.
The walls weren't built so everyone could stand around admiring the walls.
They were built so God's people could worship God with greater freedom and glory.
Maybe God has restored something in your life that you once thought couldn't be restored.
A marriage that was falling apart.
A relationship with your children that was unraveling.
A life that seemed to be going off the rails.
A struggle with sin you couldn't imagine overcoming.
A faith you thought you'd lost.
When God restores something, don't keep His work to yourself.
Share it.
Someone else may desperately need to see evidence that restoration is possible.
Your victory isn't only your victory.
When God works in one person's life, that testimony can put courage into another person's heart.
If pain hits your front door, it should matter to the people around you.
And when victory hits your front door, that should matter to them too.
Your life has always been meant to be a much bigger life than just your life.

Don't Stop Guarding What God Has Rebuilt

Finishing the wall wasn't the end of Nehemiah's work.
Nehemiah 7:3 (ESV): “And I said to them, ‘Let not the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. And while they are still standing guard, let them shut and bar the doors. Appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, some at their guard posts and some in front of their own homes.’”
The wall was finished.
But it still needed to be guarded.
That's an important picture for our lives.
Victory can be won and later lost because nobody is watching the gate.
Your relationship with Jesus needs to be nurtured, cultivated, and protected.
Your marriage doesn't become healthy and then remain healthy automatically.
Your children still need you to stay engaged.
You don't restore a relationship, celebrate the victory, and then abandon everything you learned while rebuilding it.
If something was worth rebuilding, it's worth protecting.
Ask yourself:
What has God rebuilt in my life that I need to guard?

Every Part of Your Life Can Point People to Jesus

God has positioned His people to be points of light in this world.
That means every part of your life has the potential to bring Him glory.
Your marriage matters.
Your parenting matters.
Your friendships matter.
Your work matters.
Your habits matter.
Your worship matters.
Your victories matter.
The ordinary parts of your life matter.
That shouldn't frighten or intimidate you. It should encourage you.
What is so cool about the book of Nehemiah is that there are no, like, huge crazy miracles that take place. Just ordinary men and women who took the risk, to be fully devoted followers of God. Who decided that their lives, every bit of it, were all for His glory…
And because they did, God became unmistakably the hero of their story.

The Challenge: Use Your Life to Point People to Jesus

So what about you, how do you live a life that's bigger than your life?
Start with the ordinary things.
Look at your daily habits.
Ask what's keeping you where you are.
Decide what needs to change.
Protect what God has already restored.
Celebrate what He's doing in other people's lives.
And then embrace one simple challenge:
Use your life to point everyone you come across to Jesus.
Point your children to Jesus.
Point your spouse to Jesus.
Point your friends to Jesus.
Point your community to Jesus.
Even encourage the people in your church toward Jesus.
Because ultimately, the goal isn't for people to look at your life and be impressed with you.
It's for them to look at your life and recognize Him.
So ask yourself this week:
What would it look like for me to intentionally use my life to point someone to Jesus?
Then go live it.