Rebuilding with Nehemiah - What's Our Response?

Nehemiah 1: 4 -7 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said:
"O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Once Nehemiah identified that the ruins in Jerusalem needed to be rebuilt He immediately went to the Lord. “He sat down and wept” says to me that he was overcome with emotion – sadness and grief. His grief lead him to mourn, fast and pray for days.

What does looking at the ruins in our lives motivate us to do? Give up? Eat?

Go shopping? Rationalize, compare or minimize? We do something with those emotions when we feel them. I can remember feeling sorry for myself at one point and wallowing in self-pity. It didn’t help my situation but it was my reaction.

Another thing that can happen is that we tell ourselves some lies or listen to the lies of the enemy being whispered to our spirit. “This is impossible, too hard, I could never rebuild this area of my life; I’ll just have to move on and make the best of it.” Or, we dive in to fix it with the self-help books, advice from friends and move gung ho forward only to find ourselves defeated after a few weeks.

But Nehemiah had the right idea. He experienced the pain of his loss by mourning instead of stuffing the pain with an activity, food or busyness. He allowed himself to cry deeply over the loss of the gates of security and the crumpled walls of protection of his beloved city -- the majestic city of the Lord.

The gates and walls being in appalling condition was a reflection of his God, his roots and people. It affected him deeply.

The conditions of our lives reflect our God. What is being reflected? Do our lives reflect the Mighty Host of Heaven – His power, majesty, mercy, grace, faithfulness and goodness? Yes, we are a work in progress but is progress happening. Are we ignoring some area of ruins because it’s too messy or it will require too much of us.

Maybe we need to follow Nehemiah’s example in verses four through seven and pray, confess our sins and ask forgiveness for the sins committed against us. Confession is always a good place to start. Confess that area of ruins. Confess our denial of our ruins. Confess our need to rebuild. Confess that God is great enough to guide us and help us in the rebuilding process.