Nehemiah, the old testament prophet, was weeping. He was filled with grief over the news he had just received concerning his homeland. We read about what happened in Nehemiah 1:2-4, as Nehemiah tells us in his own words,

“Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 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.’ When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

Broken walls, burned gates, breached borders, his beloved homeland defenseless and destroyed. No wonder Nehemiah wept for the people of his homeland and their current sad state of affairs. It broke his heart to think of the once beautiful Jerusalem now in ruins, his fellow countrymen, once prosperous people now destitute. I confess – I understand why Nehemiah was weeping. I, too, know that pain. I weep as well.

When Nehemiah received this sad news, he was living in the citadel of Susa, away from his beloved homeland. He had no way of knowing what was happening back at home, until Hanani along with some others, made the trip on foot to where Nehemiah was, so they could give him their report face to face. Keep in mind, there were no other options at the time. They couldn’t pick up the phone and call Nehemiah, they couldn’t send him an email or a text or face time with him or post something for him to see on Facebook about what was happening in his homeland. There wasn’t even the possibility of a telegram or of pony express. Nehemiah couldn’t read about it in a newspaper nor could he turn on a TV or a radio and learn the news. Hanani could have written a letter, I guess, which would then have to be delivered by a messenger who would travel just as Hanani and his men did in order to deliver it, but then Hanani would have to trust the messenger. What if the messenger doesn’t discharge his duties honestly and Nehemiah never knows the true plight of Jerusalem?

It is hard for me to imagine not being able to know what is going on in other places around the world. Of course, it is not first hand knowledge, it is filtered and reported through the lens of someone that was there. Or maybe they weren’t actually there, but someone told them about it. Nevertheless, in Nehemiah’s day what you knew was primarily what you experienced personally and secondarily what someone might relate to you, having traveled from somewhere else.

So when Nehemiah received this news about Jerusalem, he was deeply affected. His response was tears. It was also to grieve, to fast and to pray. We don’t know how long this went on, he only says “for some days.” Nehemiah’s prayer to God reminds me of God’s command to us in 2 Chronicles 7:14,

“if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Nehemiah cried out to God,

“O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands, 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 house, have committed against You. . . . We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws You gave Your servant Moses. . . . They are Your servants and Your people, whom You redeemed by Your great strength and Your mighty hand. O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in revering Your name.” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)

Confession. Repentance. Turning back to the God who called them to come out and be separate from other nations. Turning back to the God who made them a people, who made them a nation. God had prospered Israel, but they ceased following His ways of righteous living and instead they pursued their own sinful ways of living. They abandoned God’s law for laws of their own making, which resulted in lawlessness. They profaned that which was holy and exalted that which was baseless and degrading. Because of this, God allowed neighboring nations to invade and conquer Israel, and many were carried off into exile in Babylon at that time.

Perhaps they didn’t see it coming, this destruction of their country and their way of life. But they should have. God’s word was always pretty clear. God said in Deuteronomy 5:6-9,

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them;”

But they did. The Israelites turned away from the Living God, who had brought them into the land He had promised to Abraham years ago, and made them into a nation. They had become a great nation, a secure nation, a prosperous nation. But their behavior toward God changed. Romans 1:21-25 describes what happened to the people of Israel,

“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – ”

That’s why Nehemiah spent time in confession and repentance before God. He knew that must come first before anything he might do to help in the restoration of his beloved Jerusalem. Next, Nehemiah secured the king’s (his boss) permission to journey to Judah and help to restore Jerusalem. The king not only granted Nehemiah’s request for time off from his job, but sent supplies, army officers, cavalry, and letters of protection and a request for timber from the king’s forest, to be used to make beams for the gates and for the city wall and to make a place for Nehemiah to live. (he was going to be in Jerusalem awhile, rebuilding after such destruction takes time)

Nehemiah set about the work God had given him to do and enlisted others to join him in this endeavor. He said to the people, ” ‘You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.’ . . . They replied, ‘Let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work.” (Nehemiah 2:17-18)

So Nehemiah began the work of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. However, he faced opposition from enemies who opposed his desire to see his homeland restored. These enemies used the predictable and the proven methods employed by all successful bullies, those being threats, intimidation, blackmail and fear. Oh, and of course the ever popular bully tactic of ridicule. We read in Nehemiah 2:19,

“But when Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. ‘What is this you are doing?’ they asked. ‘Are you rebelling against the king?’ I answered them by saying, ‘The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.’ ”

Still the bullies persisted,

“When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, ‘What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? . . . Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble – burned as they are?’ ” (Nehemiah 4:1-2)

But Nehemiah and those that labored with him, persevered in their work of rebuilding the wall.

“So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.”

Still, the threats of Nehemiah’s enemies continued, causing the people to become discouraged and filled with fear, saying there was too much rubble for them to ever rebuild the wall and their enemies would surely kill them before they could finish the work. But Nehemiah tells us what happens next in this story,

“After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’ When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.” (Nehemiah 4:14-15)

So Nehemiah’s work on the wall continued. His enemies’ threats of violence against them did not succeed in getting him to stop the work of rebuilding, fear and intimidation failed. But the bullies had one more weapon to try – blackmail or extortion. Sanballat sent his messenger to Nehemiah with an unsealed letter that was to be sent to King Artaxerxes (Nehemiah’s boss) claiming that Nehemiah was planning a revolt and was going to make himself king. Nehemiah’s response to Sanballat the bully?

“I sent him this reply: ‘Nothing like what you are saying is happening, you are just making it up out of your head.’ They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.’ But I prayed, ‘Now strengthen my hands.’ ” (Nehemiah 6:8-9)

Nehemiah was praying his way through each and every assault of his enemies. And there came yet another one. This time they tried to entice Nehemiah to a secret meeting. Nehemiah’s response?

“I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.” (Nehemiah 6:12-13)

Then we read,

“So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” (Nehemiah 6:15-16) (when things are done in God’s power and timing, He gets the glory!)

Nehemiah wept, he prayed, he obeyed and he worked. He worked as unto the Lord and consequently, he was not deterred nor intimidated by the bullies who were his enemies. He met each challenge with prayer and then returned to the task God had given him to do, which at this time was rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall. He and the Israelites were again experiencing the truth of Psalm 33:12,

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.”

The Israelites had also experienced in the preceding years, what life is like apart from God, when they turned their backs on Him and lived by their own rules instead of following God’s life-giving laws. As it says in Romans 1:25, “they exchanged the truth of God for a lie,”.

history certainly does seem to repeat itself, no matter how much we claim we learn from it –

sometimes (unlike Cinderella) if the shoe fits it can be fatal

sincerely, Grace Day

I confess – my Christmas decorations are still out. This should not be that much of a surprise given that I am a procrastinator and given that I was still decorating right up to the twenty-fifth when I decided I was done. So some decorations haven’t been out that long and I need more time to enjoy them. Maybe my standard should be, when there are no longer any Hallmark Christmas movies on TV, then my Christmas decorations should be packed away. But by that standard, I don’t think my decorations would ever come down.

So what to do? Maybe I will use my “a decoration a day” approach in reverse to transition back to pre-Advent decor. But what then? With Advent over what am I preparing for? An empty calendar hangs on my wall and empty days stretch out ahead of me. Schools are still closed along with so many restaurants and businesses and events, such as meetings, conventions, conferences, concerts, plays etc. will not be taking place as they have in the past. Many possible travel destinations come to mind, but travel doesn’t seem to be possible today.

So what’s a journey without a destination? Or more accurately, maybe without a destination there is no need for a journey. Without a journey, stagnation sets in and growth stops. Without growth, living things die. We are meant to keep on growing throughout our lives. Physical growth may stop, but mental, emotional and spiritual growth are lifetime pursuits. So the good news is, our journeys are not over. There is always more to learn, more to experience, more to be done. I have found this to be particularly true as I journey towards and pursue knowing God.

God is infinite in His Being and in all His attributes, so I will never fully know Him. But my pursuit of Him will certainly last a lifetime, a lifetime filled with new revelations of my Heavenly Father, yet always more to learn, more to discover about His character, about His ways, about Him. Paul knew this was a lifetime pursuit, a lifetime journey or just maybe the journey of a lifetime. We can read what Paul said about his “after Advent” journey (meaning after Paul met Jesus while traveling on the road to Damascus) in Philippians 3:12-14,

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Paul presses on because he has not yet arrived at his journey’s end. Paul was not stagnate, he did not stand still, mistakenly thinking that he had already been made perfect. No, Paul stated clearly that he would “press on toward the goal to win the prize.” His journey wasn’t over and neither is mine. I just need some direction in this uncharted new year so that I don’t wander off the path or journey in the wrong direction.

It occurs to me that my direction is determined by where my focus falls. These words from Hebrews 12:3 seem particularly relevant,

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

So, as I find my way on my after Advent journey, I am to keep my eyes on Jesus. Furthermore I am instructed to,

” . . . throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us (me) run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (me)”

I am to run the race marked out for me, not for someone else, not for anyone else. I am called to run the race God has prepared for me, not to attempt to run someone else’s race in shoes I was not meant to wear. I can take to heart God’s words to the Israelites when they were captives in Babylon. God told them,

” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ” (Jeremiah 29:11)

There’s my word HOPE, something God says He plans to give me. That is a gift I definitely desire. My life feels like it’s on hold today. And actually on so many days in these COVID controlled times, it feels that way to me. I long to be in motion, searching, pursuing, journeying, discovering, growing, walking, running, soaring – anything but standing stagnate. Today I may only be able to take a few steps on my journey, but tomorrow I want to run with perseverance the race God has marked out for me.

How do I do that? One day at a time, one step at a time. And I have hope in God’s promise to me given in these words in Isaiah 40:31,

“but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

walking, running, soaring . . . let the journey continue!

sincerely, Grace Day

I ask myself this question as I take down my 2020 wall calendar and hang up my 2021 calendar. I guess I’m hoping quite a bit of something good is in a number, specifically in a new number for a new year. It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet, so maybe I should give 2021 a little more time, but so far I don’t discern any difference in today (2021) from yesterday. (2020)

The prevailing sentiment has been a desire for the year 2020 to end. The reason for this is no mystery but the realization that 2021 has no magic up its sleeve to mask all our losses and heartaches behind a shroud of false reality and thereby enable us to move forward, will be a rude awakening for many, whenever it should become apparent. (all puns intended)

I look at my new 2021 calendar and open it to the month of January. On the page are written these words, “set your goals now and watch as they unfold throughout the year.” If only it were that simple! Like many of you, I, too, am a planner. If only I could plan and know that it would come to pass. This is the time we make New Year’s resolutions and set goals and plan for the future. But . . . Proverbs 19:21 has something interesting to say about this,

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”

I do spend time planning, dreaming, desiring, pursuing, striving after – after what? That is an important question which I should be able to answer. Proverbs 3:5-6 gives me this advice,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Matthew 6:33-34 tells me, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

So much for all of my carefully laid plans. If nothing else, this past year taught us (and taught me) we can’t count on our own plans becoming reality. My plans have no certainty of coming true. 2020 was the year of postponed plans/events, rescheduled plans/events and cancelled indefinitely plans/events. Maybe I should plan less and trust God more? Proverbs 16:9 says,

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”

Jeremiah says in 10:23, “I know, O Lord, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.”

Maybe that would be a good New Year’s resolution for me – stop leaning on my own understanding and instead, trust God completely. Of course, my Heavenly Father doesn’t necessarily tell me what my future holds, He just asks me to follow wherever He leads. Psalm 23 tells me some of the places He will lead me saying,

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”

That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? green pastures, quiet waters, and paths of righteousness. Still, this path of righteousness can require me to pass through some dangerous places. But I have my Heavenly Father’s promise to me as I follow Him on the path He has prepared for me,

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:4-5)

God’s presence will protect and provide for me as I allow Him to direct my paths. 2021 is uncharted territory, maybe it is time I let the One who knows the beginning from the end take the lead in my life?

“I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ ” (Isaiah 46:9-10)

My plans sometimes don’t hold up for even a day, let alone something planned months ahead. In other words, my plans are pretty wishy-washy and subject to change with every whim and wind of the moment. Not at all reliable. But God’s plans and purposes always materialize, always come to pass. In a world of uncertainty, it would be nice to have something to count on, something or someone to put my hope in. Psalm 33:10-11 tells me,

“The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.”

That’s the assurance I’m looking for in this uncertain world – God’s plans, promises and purposes stand firm forever. They cannot be thwarted. God is calling me to take up my cross and follow Him. Like Abraham, I have a decision to make. I can follow God and go with His plan, or lean on my own understanding. (which I confess – doesn’t always end well for me) Like Abraham, I don’t know where God will lead me, what lies on the path ahead, but I know I can trust God and walk by faith.

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6)

I don’t know what lies ahead in 2021, it is an unknown future stretching ahead of me on this first day of the New Year. After 2020, I don’t even dare to fill in any of the squares on my new calendar. But I don’t need to know what the future holds, my Heavenly Father knows and that is enough for me to walk without fear into 2021. I have these words of assurance from Psalm 121:3-8,

“He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

that’s all I need to know,

sincerely, Grace Day