Nehemiah for You
Eric Mason provides biblical commentary and practical application on the book of Nehemiah for contemporary Christian living.
Nehemiah shows us the work it takes to rebuild representation of the glory of God to the nations.
The word Nehemiah means “Yahweh comforts.” Isn’t that beautiful?
What God is helping us to think through in Nehemiah is this: what does it look like to see the power of the gospel transform and rebuild us into a reflection of the eternal Jerusalem?
“I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). A verse like that prompts us to ask questions of ourselves. Have I wept? Have I mourned for the state of God’s people? Have I mourned for the state of the world? Have I felt the brokenness Nehemiah felt? Remember, the people in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s time were “in great trouble and shame.” That word “trouble” means “brokenness”—being smashed, being injured, being absolutely shattered by circumstances.
encountering God in prayer is vital if you want to see rebuilding in your life and in the world around you.
no matter where you find yourself—you are on a journey with God through Jesus Christ. In light of that, each of us has to recognize that God has put us where we are right now for a particular purpose. That changes the way we view ourselves being there. We can like being there or we can dislike being there, but we can’t forget that God has put us there. Wherever we’re going and wherever we are, God has placed us there for him.
Fighting for your children means fighting to ensure that they can’t remember a day when Jesus wasn’t being invested into their souls. It means developing a family worship time in which you point the whole household heavenward. It means creating memories for your children of precious worship and times of prayer; it means teaching them the Bible. It means talking to them about what it means to follow Christ.