First

“When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said, 'O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel."  Nehemiah 1:4-6a

Once, while on a spelunking adventure with a group of teenage guys, one of the larger young men got stuck, seriously stuck. All the pushing and pulling we were doing was in vain. He was seriously scared and as his youth pastor, I was a wreak. Finally, after a moment's rest to catch our breath, the Lord nudged me to pray. As my eyes opened at the, "Amen", I saw a ledge above him I hadn't seen before which enabled me to get the leverage I needed to pull him out ... to cheers and tears of praise.

Nehemiah was broken. The thought that God's people and God's city, Jerusalem, were in disarray was more than he could take. His response? He humbled himself before God and begged for help. As a matter of fact, all through the book of Nehemiah, we see him stop and pray to God. God chose to honor Nehemiah and he enabled him to be a catalyst for revival. 

So, what's your knee jerk reaction to the circumstances in your life? Emotional outbursts? Withdrawal? Try harder? Denial? The options are many. Repeatedly, in the Bible, we see one response that is put forward as THE response that surpasses all others. From Nehemiah to Jesus to believers today, the best first response available to us is prayer. We were not created to navigate through this life apart from God. Take some time this week to consider why you find prayer to be a difficult first response.

Grace and Peace,

Tom Wiles
tom@fallcreekchristian.org

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