Nehemiah's name means: to sigh; breathe strongly; to be sorry; in a favorable sense, to pity, console or reflexively rue. It also means to comfort; ease; repent.
I think this describes how we should be in prayer for this time in history. Asking God to fill us with his emotions for the world around us, that is fallen so far from our God. We need to begin to get the heart of Nehemiah for the broken world around us and weep, mourn, fast and pray for them. (Nehemiah 1:4) Not condemning them but having a true pity on their lost lives.
And then we need to follow the example of Nehemiah and spring to action building the Kingdom of God. Nehemiah 5:16 "...I devoted myself to the work on this wall." Nehemiah left his job as cupbearer to the king (Neh. 1:11) to begin a hard, long work. I don't like this thought. I want to stay put, in my intimacy with Jesus and not 'go to work'. But our call is to come up from the King's chambers and go build.
In Brian Zahnd's recent message "Knights of Faith", he talks about lightly touching earth and leaping back into 'heaven's realms'. We cannot completely leave our earthly realm and life but we must be able to touch into both worlds. Excellent message.
Nehemiah 2:18
"...They replied, 'Let us start rebuilding.'
So they began this good work."
"...They replied, 'Let us start rebuilding.'
So they began this good work."
3 comments:
awesome thinking!!! Good stuff! I just picked up the book of Nehemiah to start rereading that, cause I remembered i had done a study on it way back in high school some time, and I need some leadership help!!!
Thanks for your insights!
Good nuggets from Nehemiah and BZ.
Our Sunday School class did a study on Nehemiah several years ago. I think we used one of Chuck Swindoll's books as a guide. Good stuff!
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