Pre-Rebuilding Step One: Ask

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Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 1:2)

This week we’re doing something a little different with the Connect Devotional.  While the team of writers are away, we’re going to play! 

At the end of yesterday’s message I closed out with a summary of Nehemiah’s preparations for his magnificent rebuilding project. And I invited everyone to do one step a day for five days as preparation for our own engagement with rebuilding in whatever way that might look for you this fall.

If you didn’t catch yesterday’s message, you can watch it by clicking here.

Each day this week I’ll take that day’s ‘assignment’ and deliver it to your inbox, unpacking it a little bit and helping you to enter into Nehemiah’s process and make it your own.

The first thing Nehemiah does that sets him on the path towards God’s rebuilding project is he asks a question. He asks about a city he’s likely never been to and a people that he’s 900 miles away from. 

Step one today in our map for preparing for rebuilding is Ask: what’s broken in you or around you that God would have you to attend to?

For some of us, it’s obvious: our health is deteriorating, our job situation has shifted, you or someone you love is in the midst of crisis.  It’s still worth asking the question to position us before God in an open-handed posture and with open hearts to have him to give us eyes to see it correctly. 

For others of us, we’ve been relatively unscathed by everything going on. And like Nehemiah, it would be easier to not get around to asking about anyone or anything else—you’re doing fine.

But there’s an invitation to go to God and ask him for eyes to see the needs around you. He might answer your prayer with an article that catches your eye in the news or through a conversation with friend or family member. He might put a new need right in front of you. Or he might just lay something or someone or a group of people on your heart.  

Nehemiah asks a question about a people and a city that he could easily have ignored. But by asking the question it puts him on a path that leads to one of the most remarkable rebuilding projects in history—and it’s why we’re reading about him 2,500 years later. 

It all starts with asking a simple question.

“God, what’s broken in me or around me that you would have you to attend to? I’m open and ready to respond.”

1 Comment

My answer is my faith is fragile and my joy is dried up. I am dwelling on my hurts instead of counting my blessings. I will reread "Disappointment with God" by Philip Yancey. Also, I am feeling deeply concerned and helpless at my mother's bout with cancer. I need to realize her welfare is God's responsibility. My desire is for her to be healed and given 10 more years at least.

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