As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:4)
This is where change begins. And frankly, the church in our culture has lost sight of this. We are so busy trying to fight a culture war that we have chosen to neglect the battle in our own hearts. As a result, we are unfit to join God in His kingdom work.
Nehemiah – a Jewish man living in exile – heard the news that Jerusalem was in ruins. This news broke him. His heart was grieved, and he stopped his normal routine of life and mourned. He entered into a time of fasting and prayer … a spiritual journey that most of us Christians today have chosen to ignore. He confessed the sins of his nation and his family, and he confessed his own sin. He called on God to remember His covenant, that if His people obeyed Him once again that He would initiate a time of restoration. A time of rebuilding. Finally, Nehemiah asked for mercy as he prepared to ask his foreign king to help him rebuild the walls and gates of his beloved city, for the glory of God.
I look at the American church, and I am grieved. Local churches compete with one another through marketing campaigns. People who say they trust Jesus and follow him display more anger and fear than they do truth and love. Worship services trend toward performance instead of communal celebration and repentance. As church life relies more on the tools of humanity it relies less on the power of the Holy Spirit. We look so much like the world that the world doesn’t even recognize the difference anymore.
Like Jerusalem of old, our walls lie in ruins. Our gates are burned with fire. We need a time of restoration. We need a time of rebuilding. And that starts with me. It starts with you. It starts with each of us.
Let us mourn. Let us fast. Let us pray. Let us draw near to our Lord and confess to Him the sins of the church, the sins of our households, and yes, our very own sins. And let us ask for mercy as we seek God for the path forward.
Because this is where change begins.
Dan Londeree 