JESUS REBUILIDING THE WALLS OF OUR LIVES.

Am gonna try to make this short, more like devotionals and not necessarily the interpretation of the bible, so you will excuse my allegory method here. If you read though, you might be edified.

I believe Nehemiah is a typology of Jesus, and as one author puts it he is the Jesus that rebuilds the walls of our lives”1 and he doesn’t only rebuild the spiritual walls of lives (even though this area remains a priority) but he rebuilds our health, relationships, intellectuality, finances etc.

I always remember how Tim Kreutter likes to say, Matthew 6:33 doesn’t say SEEK ONLY but says SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, therefore it speaks to the matter of “Priority” and doesn’t at all mean that we should not work on other areas of our lives.

Nehemiah 1:3 (NIV) “ They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

• Realization: Nehemiah realizes that even the survivors of exile who are now back in Jerusalem are having great troubles and disgrace; Even those of us that have survived the darkness of the world, the condemnation, eternal death and are now in Jerusalem, in the city of Peace, in the Prince of peace, even though we have now been given the right to be called the children of God, the eternal life in Jesus Christ: there is still trouble in our lives, somethings are not right. Every change starts with realizing undesired circumstances, when we listen to the Bible, it points to our undesired habits, thoughts and other thing that do not glorify God. Through learning from our environment and evaluate ourselves we realize what is not going right in our lives. So to you, what is it that is not going right in your spiritual growth? health? finance? relationships? and other areas? Be specific.

Take your time to evaluate yourself, judge yourself justly and you will find that there is a lot that needs to change in all the areas of life mentioned above. Specifically on the spiritual area, sometimes our hearts may deceive us that we are right with God for the heart is deceitful above all things, but ask God to search your heart, for he searches the hearts.2

Nehemiah 1:4 (NIV) “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

• Desire to change: After realizing what wasn’t right with the remnants, Nehemiah desired a change, this was expressed by how he felt and what he did. The first step to changing is the desire to do so. It comes from realizing that somethings are not going right in your life and then the degree at which you desire that change will determine what you are willing to pay/sacrifice to see that change coming. The desire to change cannot be taken lightly.

Nehemiah 1:5-7 “……………… let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you……”

• APPLY ACTION: Now that there is a realization of what is going wrong and a strong desire for a change is here, the rest of the book of Nehemiah will inspire us on what we should do for a real change to come. The rest of the book will be about the actions we should apply.

The first thing that Nehemiah does is “prayer”. For us the believers, the first things we should do to change anything is to pray. We pray at all times and pray for everything. The Bible encourages us to ask so as to receive, seek so as to find and knock so that the doors are opened for us.3 That if we are tired or weary we are to go to Jesus so as to find rest.4 The Bible also says that we are to cast our burdens unto Jesus for He cares for us.5

Nehemiah prayed, and because indeed sometimes (not all times) the trouble we have is a result of our sins (Check Isiah 59:1-2), he confesses the sins of his people, his father’s house and his own sins. The Bible says, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and he will forgive us, he will cleanse and restore us.6

Nehemiah 1:8-9 “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.”

God has consistently promised in his word that if we return to him, he will return to us (Zechariah 1:3, 2 Chronicles 30:9, Jeremiah 3:12, Joel 2:13, Isaiah 55:7, Hosea 12:6). Will you return to him today? If we surely return to him, the restoration and rebuilding will start in every area of our lives. This is self evident: Logically, what we do good or bad has consequences on our lives, returning to God means that we change our bad ways to good ways, consequently the effects of our actions will start changing positively and that is indeed rebuilding our lives.

See you next time on chap 2.