lead with compassion…. nehemiah

What moves you to compassion? Wars, earthquakes, shootings, tsunamis, floods, you name it and we are surrounded by a world filled with tragedy. Yet our distance from a tragedy can seemingly steal the reality of its devastation. Sorrow for a moment does not sustain the rebuilding of families, lives, loss, and hurt that follow in the weeks or even years ahead. The scope of devastation reaches beyond the natural disasters or terroristic acts we have become accustomed to. What about the tragedies of broken homes, sexual abuse, divorce, aloneness, or degrading of your very identity? These represent the unseen tragedies of our generation.

When Nehemiah heard the cry of the war captives we see that he sat down. He paused his life, he wept and he mourned. It was not for a moment but, for days that he felt the burden of the captives. Nehemiah represents the heart of God, who is not far off when pain enters our world, but intimately concerned and moved to compassion. Nehemiah was aligned with the heart of the Father to grieve and to restore what the enemy had stolen.

Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:1

If we look further Nehemiah was not simply sad for a season, he was distressed and moved to fast and pray. He felt the heart of God and moved in to align himself with the heart of God. With his full person he responded to the need; he engaged his mind, his emotions, his physical body, and his very soul to pick up the mantel of mission for Jerusalem. The prophet’s mission was to align with the heart of God for the people.

To respond to the heart of God is to lean in. It demands that you recognize that the Spirit inside of you is forming you to look like Christ; bearing the fullness of God on your life. Just as Christ took on the sin of the world before the Father, so also Nehemiah represented the heart of God by mourning, representing the people in their sin, declaring God’s character, and speaking a destiny of hope over them. Nehemiah entered into compassion with a spirit moved to represent the people before God. How then shall we be ambassadors for our generation and in doing so produce the heart of God to this world?