A few winters ago, the pipes burst in my in-laws\u2019 home while they were out of town. My husband and I drove over to take photos and give them an idea of how bad the damage was. As we tentatively opened the front door, we pushed aside soggy clumps of insulation, chunks of dry wall, and even decor that had been flung by the rushing water. To say that their home was destroyed would be an understatement (fun fact: ceilings are NOT supposed to be on the floor). At one point in our very careful survey of the wreckage, we simply paused to take in the scene. Wet furniture was already molding. Paint bubbled and peeled from the walls. Pieces of debris littered the ground. This once warm, welcoming, and lovely home was absolutely destroyed. And standing in those chaotic remains, I had no idea how to even begin restoring all that was lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I imagine Nehemiah having a similar experience on his night ride around the demolished walls of Jerusalem. About seventy years had passed since Jerusalem was destroyed and God\u2019s people were exiled. What had once been the home of God\u2019s people\u2014a place where they interacted with neighbors, shared meals, and simply lived out regular days\u2014was now an unprotected pile of rubble. How was Nehemiah going to take this broken place and make it what it once was?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thankfully, Nehemiah wasn\u2019t the one who had to answer that question. The book of Nehemiah tells us exactly how God rebuilt both the walls of Jerusalem and the spiritual identity of His people. In the middle of the very real opposition and injustice in this story, there is a God of great patience, comfort, and hope. The Lord strengthened His people for the work they needed to do in order to restore their physical home. When they failed to live up to their spiritual calling as His chosen nation, God did not abandon them, and instead called them back to His law and its wisdom. God upheld His covenant promise to be faithful to them even when they could not do the same in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we read the book of Nehemiah, we will dig deep to see how the struggles and experiences of God\u2019s people resonate in our own lives. We will turn our hearts to the God of Nehemiah, the same God who steadfastly restores us when we repent from sin and return to Him. And we will give thanks to the Lord that, in Christ, He has provided all we need to find our sure, safe, and unshakeable home in Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few winters ago, the pipes burst in my in-laws\u2019 home while they were out of town. My husband and I drove over to take photos and give them an idea of how bad the damage was. As we tentatively opened the front door, we pushed aside soggy clumps of insulation, chunks of dry wall, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":72538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nehemiah25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72617],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER<\/b>
\r\nby Kayla De La Torre<\/i>
\r\n
A few winters ago, the pipes burst in my in-laws\u2019 home while they were out of town. My husband and I drove over to take photos and give them an idea of how bad the damage was. As we tentatively opened the front door, we pushed aside soggy clumps of insulation, chunks of dry wall, and even decor that had been flung by the rushing water. To say that their home was destroyed would be an understatement (fun fact: ceilings are NOT supposed to be on the floor). At one point in our very careful survey of the wreckage, we simply paused to take in the scene. Wet furniture was already molding. Paint bubbled and peeled from the walls. Pieces of debris littered the ground. This once warm, welcoming, and lovely home was absolutely destroyed. And standing in those chaotic remains, I had no idea how to even begin restoring all that was lost.<\/p>
\r\n
I imagine Nehemiah having a similar experience on his night ride around the demolished walls of Jerusalem. About seventy years had passed since Jerusalem was destroyed and God\u2019s people were exiled. What had once been the home of God\u2019s people\u2014a place where they interacted with neighbors, shared meals, and simply lived out regular days\u2014was now an unprotected pile of rubble. How was Nehemiah going to take this broken place and make it what it once was?<\/p>
\r\n
Thankfully, Nehemiah wasn\u2019t the one who had to answer that question. The book of Nehemiah tells us exactly how God rebuilt both the walls of Jerusalem and the spiritual identity of His people. In the middle of the very real opposition and injustice in this story, there is a God of great patience, comfort, and hope. The Lord strengthened His people for the work they needed to do in order to restore their physical home. When they failed to live up to their spiritual calling as His chosen nation, God did not abandon them, and instead called them back to His law and its wisdom. God upheld His covenant promise to be faithful to them even when they could not do the same in return.<\/p>
\r\n
As we read the book of Nehemiah, we will dig deep to see how the struggles and experiences of God\u2019s people resonate in our own lives. We will turn our hearts to the God of Nehemiah, the same God who steadfastly restores us when we repent from sin and return to Him. And we will give thanks to the Lord that, in Christ, He has provided all we need to find our sure, safe, and unshakeable home in Him.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"1","scripture":"Nehemiah 1:1-11, Psalm 137:1-9, Matthew 23:37-39","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}