Nehemiah 1:4
As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Tag: Eyes on the Things of God
Nehemiah is an example of how a believer should respond, while at work, over the things of God. Nehemiah was employed as a cupbearer to the king. In that vocation he was able to have great opportunity to do something great for God. When a fellow kinsmen came from Jerusalem and reported who the walls of the city were destroyed, Nehemiah became emotional. This was a serous problem. Nehemiah felt emotions over the problem. Having “no” feelings would be odd. He cries, mourns and shows it ... the king saw it (2:2). We seldom get emotional of the things of God. We can get emotional over the things of sports. We can get emotional over the things of making money, or losing money. We can get emotional over losing or gaining a loved one. But, do we really get emotional over the things of God? When we do get emotional over the things of God what do we do? In Nehemiah’s example we see him weep, mourn, fast and pray. Nehemiah took the problem first and foremost to God. Nehemiah realized that God would know about the problem, but that God still wanted Nehemiah to commune with God over the problem. Nehemiah didn’t cry to his friends. Nehemiah didn’t freeze. Nehemiah didn’t bemoan his helplessness. Nehemiah didn’t seek his own comfort (he could have ... he was employed by the king in the king’s palace ... he could have focused on his safety and his needs). Nehemiah took the emotion and gave it to God in prayer. He did get emotionally, but he didn’t allow the emotion to freeze him. God brought it to him and he gave it back to God. That is what leaders do with problems.
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