When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens. (Nehemiah 1:4)
Nehemiah was a prominent man, living in luxury in the capital of Persia. Yet, when hearing of the tragic news about Jerusalem, a distant city that he had never been to, he broke down and prayed. And instead of kicking back, scrolling to the next news event happening around the empire, while sipping on his caramel macchiato with a few drops of oat milk, Nehemiah got away to pray.
For many of us living in our capitals of comfort and security, it’s challenging to immediately stop everything we’re doing and respond in some way to tragic news happening around our world. I mean there are countless calamities happening each day! And our human capacity can only respond to as much as God has built us to handle, right? Perhaps, but there’s a tendency for us to turn a blind eye, to take that shot of morphine to numb the emotions firing off in our heart, and go right back to what we were doing. Sometimes this response is due to feeling helpless about the situation. “I’m too far away! What can I really do?”
But maybe, God is not calling us to focus on the ten tragedies happening today. Maybe he’s not even calling us to give our attention to the two or three incidents of the day. But what if he is calling us to give our heart to one need today? What if he wants us to pray for the one person, the one family, the one city, the one nation that’s in need of Jesus’s miracle working power and loving embrace?
So for us, the next time we feel the Lord tugging on the strings of our heart, maybe it’s time to put the phone down and get on our knees. So if you happen to scroll upon updates between China and Taiwan in the coming days, or you receive a text about your coworker’s wife’ upcoming heart surgery.
Pause. Take a few moments. Fix your eyes on Jesus, the miracle worker. Set your faith on Jesus, the one who gave his life for this world. And then pray to Jesus, who is the restorer of all things. Prayer is about going to the Person, who can do something about the tragedies in life.
Nehemiah didn’t waste any time praying, because he knew who to turn to. He knew who held the power and love to do something about Jerusalem’s situation. And his prayer led to God beginning the process of rebuilding the walls and people of Jerusalem.