Response Mode

Nehemiah 1::4; It came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

What is your reaction to bad news? How do you respond when you receive a bad report? When you hear of tragedies like we read about every day in the news? Do you have compassion? Or just a sense of ‘oh well, things happen?”
Our Lord gave us a continuing lesson in ‘compassion’ when He told us, “Bear one another’s burdens; love one another as I have loved you”. He wept at the unbelief at the tomb of Lazarus; He wept over the beloved city of Jerusalem because of the disbelief and rejection of the people.” Consider the following examples from scripture.

Let us look at Nehemiah. In the first chapter of the book, we learn how he receives an unfavorable report from his homeland. He knew the people there were captives to a heathen king even as he was. But when he learned they were in extreme poverty and hungry, living in a burned out village, he was devastated. He was not able to help them, he was a slave himself, acting as the king’s cupbearer verse 3and 4. He did the only thing he could, he responded with compassion and sat down and wept.
Verses 5-11 give us the prayer which he prayed to his God. Not just one time, a quick “help them Lord”, but a travailing, continuous prayer in which he was able to have a relationship with his God, where he could continue in deep intercession for the needs of the people in Jerusalem. His response to bad news was prayer, a four month prayer, fasting, crying out to his God for mercy and an answer to how he could help these people and restore his home town.

Have you ever travailed in prayer? Have you ever fell on your face before God, pouring out your soul before Him, weeping, shedding tears;, crying from your inner most soul for a response to a situation which you cannot change, but you know God has the answer and the power to remedy the problem?
Have you ever spent hours, many hours, before the Lord to receive an answer which you desperately need?
If not, you have missed a great blessing. If not, you have missed an opportunity to enhance your relationship with your God. If your answer is ‘no’ then you are missing the compassion the Lord expects His children to show to the lost of this world.
Nehemiah’s response was to fast, pray and then obey the Lord by making request to the man who could be used of God to answer his prayer. God used the King to empower Nehemiah to encourage the people to rebuild the city and regain their faith and power with God.
Consider Daniel. Captured by the enemy, taken to a strange land as a young man, chosen for a ‘test’ and ‘experiment’ by his captors, he made a good choice. When told he must do something which was against what he knew his God would want him to do, Daniel took a risk of being killed. He spoke out to his overseer and asked that he might be allowed to only eat what was considered appropriate under the law which his God had given to the Jewish Nation. God honored Daniel and his friend’s decision, and blessed them with a greater health, knowledge and spirit than any of the others who had followed the ways of the ungodly.
Do you stand up for what you believe? Do your actions speak of a strong character for your God? Or are you among those who say, “It won’t hurt to partake of that worldly item, or look upon that unholy scene, or act like the ungodly people of this world and thus deny your relationship with a holy God? We have been encouraged to ‘act and speak’ like the world that we might win them to the Lord. NOT! Jesus said to tell them about the ‘narrow path’ which He set out for us to follow. We are to ‘preach’ the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, both with our words and by our actions. “To be carnally ‘worldly’ minded is death” so we are to worship, preach, live our lives on a different road than what the natural man is following, a path which leads to hell. “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh (carnal) nature.We are told to come out from among the unbelievers and be a separate people unto the Lord.
We are told that we are a chosen people, a holy generation, a light to dispel the darkness and evil of this world; we are the salt of the earth, put here to preserve the truth, the way of the Lord. If we falter, if we fail to stand up for the truth, for our Lord, for His Word, then we have joined the unbeliever and as salt that has lost its flavor, is good only to be cast out into the garbage.
Do you dare to be a Daniel? Do you dare to be a Nehemiah?
Peter tells us that we should always be ready to give an answer (spoken or action) for the HOPE we have within us.
Come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord. Touch NOT the UNCLEAN thing!
And we all know what that means. Listen to your spirit and the Holy Spirit for the TRUTH!
Be filled with compassion like Nehemiah, and stand for what the Lord taught as Daniel. Follow the path of obedience like Jesus, our Redeemer.