READING: Nehemiah 1-4
“When I heard these words, I sat down and wept.”
Neh. 1:4
Once again in this year’s devotions, I’m gripped by the question of whether or not I grieve enough. I don’t want to be on a continual downer emotionally, but I can’t get away from the likes of Nehemiah, who wept over the condition of Jerusalem: “When I heard these words, I sat down and wept” (Neh. 1:4). What he had heard was the people still living in Jerusalem were in a dire condition. The wall of the city had been broken down. The gates had been burned. The people were desperate.
And Nehemiah wept. Sin had cost the people so much, and he could only cry when he heard about the city.
I look around, and here’s what I see that sin has produced. Churches that are so divided people won’t even talk to one another. Fallen pastors who were once deeply loved and respected. Socially-acceptable sins that have so infiltrated the church that we hardly look different from the world. Once-godly marriages now in the process of divorce. Young people so confused by changing social mores that they literally don’t know who they are anymore—and a culture that says that’s okay. Church leaders who have at least temporarily left the faith. I still see much, much good in the church, but I also see reasons to cry.
The wall is down. The gates have been burned. Let our prayers begin with Nehemiah’s prayer—“Both I and my father’s family have sinned” (Neh. 1:6)—and end with trust that God will always keep His Word to His children.
ACTION STEPS:
- Look around and see the destructive nature of sin among us.
- Weep over brokenness.
PRAYER: “God, I weep today. Keep me in this place of anguish as I see the world as You see it.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Nehemiah 5-7