Author: Megan Langan

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 4:1-8 (day four)

When walking through a difficult life circumstance, I often think to myself, “I don’t know how people do this without Jesus.” Whatever the situation is, be it financial struggle, health concerns, relationship issues, job stress, all of it – truly all of it – takes on a different light when submitted to Christ. The situation might still be hard, but when we walk in relationship with the Lord, he bears that heavy burden for us. We know that his purposes for us are good and that his plan for our life is one of redemption, so we can trust that he is working and moving on our behalf, even when things seem most dark.

While Nehemiah lived before Jesus came onto the earthly scene, we see him modeling this same thing. When he was getting scorned and jeered at from all sides, and even living under physical threat (ironically, these threats from Sanballat reinforced Jerusalem’s need for the wall), he ran to the Lord, and gave that heavy burden directly to him. Nehemiah trusted God’s plan, God’s justice, and God’s faithfulness. Nehemiah believed what Paul would later write, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” 

What heaviness are you carrying that would be better off in the Lord’s hands?

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 3:1-5 (day three)

While several of the names listed in this passage don’t mean anything to us, they would have meant a great deal to Nehemiah’s original audience. In a collectivist culture like this, family names and family heritage meant a great deal, and loyalty to one’s family or clan was a high value. Loyalty was strongest among one’s immediate family (though that included far more people than we would today), next strongest among the clan, present but still less strong among tribes, and the pattern continues as you draw the circle wider.

When we come to this list of names, we’re meant to be struck by such a great number of families coming together in unity for this shared task. These people didn’t come together in a vacuum. I’m sure there were plenty of past hurts and tensions, ideological differences and even bad blood between some of these families. They all gave up time, resources, and even their own security to participate in building the wall. This is a miraculous picture of unity!

Chris has often said that one of the primary marks of revival and movement of the Spirit is unity among God’s people. We get a beautiful picture of this in Nehemiah. What opportunities has the Lord given you to participate in such Unity?

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 2:11-20 (day four)

This scene reminds me of the news coverage of the California wildfires earlier this year. After the fires tore through a neighborhood, news footage would show residents of that community returning to their homes and surveying the damage. From our living room, we witnessed people realize for the first time just how much they’d lost, how vulnerable they were, and how much work there was in front of them. It is a raw and vulnerable thing to assess the damage of something you love, or a place that was taken away from you.

Nehemiah could have assessed that damage, which was probably far worse than he expected, and walked away determining it to be a total loss. But God had given him a yearning to rebuild the wall, a blessing for his journey, and the resources he needed to complete the task. While we might determine something to be a total loss, God makes a different assessment. What in your life have you determined to be a total loss that God is leading you to reassess?

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 1:4–11 (day four)

Repentance is a humbling exercise. It’s challenging enough to reflect on our daily shortcomings and sin at a personal level, but knowing how to engage in repentance at the corporate level is especially difficult. We look around at the sin and destruction in the world and feel our spirits groaning to repent, but how do we repent for something we may or may not have had an active part in? How do we repent for something that seems bigger than us, or something that happened before our time?

Nehemiah repented for his own sins, the sins of his family, and the sins of the Israelites. He repented for his direct sin, but also sins with which he was indirectly related. Nehemiah knew that whether or not he played a leading role in a particular sin issue among the Israelites, that issue of sin impacted his own spiritual life and that of generations to come. He could have stood by and pointed out what awful shape the world was in, shaking his head at his neighbors. He could have turned to self-righteousness and held a holier-than-thou attitude. Instead, he repented. He repented for the sins of his people that were much bigger than him or his family. This takes humility and a genuine longing to see the movement of God in the world and the restoration that only He can bring.

Complaining about the state of the world is easy. Repentance is harder. Only one of those options leads to renewal. When you look around and see the results of sin and destruction in the world around you, what will you choose?

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 1:1–3, 11 (day four)

Though there was celebration at the end of the exile, there was just as much, if not more, grieving. Families had been scattered and homes destroyed, and the city of Jerusalem itself sat in ruin. I’m sure many saw the rubble and considered it a lost cause – Jerusalem could never be restored, the kingdom of Israel could never return to what it once was.

Nehemiah grieved with and for his people, but he allowed that grief to turn into proactive hope. He could have allowed this grief to swallow him up, talking only of what could have been and “what-if,” lamenting over the state of things for decades. Instead, he allowed his grief to bring him to the Lord, who instilled a confident hope of better days to come. Not only would they rebuild the city, but they would rebuild their faith, and experience a collective spiritual milestone that would build the faith of generations to come.

When we observe the rubble around us, may it lead us to a prayerful, proactive hope.