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Nehemiah’s mission to rebuild the broken down walls of Jerusalem began because he wanted to know the truth about the state of the abandoned city. He was willing to face reality, even if it was uncomfortable and distressing, even if it meant that there was work to be done. He asked good questions, questions that had grim answers. He wanted to know the condition of the Jews in exile, and he wanted to know about the holy city, Jerusalem. The answers were not pretty. He had to sit down at the news. He wept. For days he prayed and fasted, and mourned before his God. What a man of faith and character. What a heart.

When he received bad news, he ran straight to the One who has the power and authority, the will and the love, to do more than we could ever ask or think. Nehemiah’s powerful, passionate prayer is recorded in Nehemiah 1:5-11.

Oh, understand this: You are God’s holy city. The walls, your boundaries, provide you with security, safety, and clear limits. They also provide protection for you, and clear lines for others to observe about what is theirs and what is yours. The walls keep the inside of the city different and set apart from what lies outside the walls.

When disaster has invaded our walls, and we realize the damage, we, too, must run to the One who knows how to put us back together again. If you have experienced abandonment or neglect, physical, verbal, sexual or emotional abuse, if you have experienced rape, abortion, betrayal, breast cancer, infidelity or divorce, the death of a parent, child or spouse, or any other trauma that has gone down deep to the core of you, and changed your idea of who you are, the strength of your walls has been compromised. When the walls of the city have been damaged or destroyed, anyone can see into the city, identify its vulnerabilities, and even come in and out at will.

Nehemiah saw that the gates of Jerusalem had been destroyed by fire; this is a picture for us of some out-of-control power, passion or pretense that starts out looking beautiful and even providing warmth, but ends up creating disaster and dysfunction and destruction.

Look at your city. Has there been an attack, or a natural disaster? Then you must inspect the walls, and be honest about the damage. Be courageous like Nehemiah. Face the truth. Nehemiah personally took a good look at every inch of wall, and he went into the darkness to do it. If you refuse to see the damage, you will never set about repairing it.

At first, Nehemiah’s work is solitary, but once he realizes that something is wrong and he can’t fix it by himself, he collaborates with others, lets them in on what he knows, and gives them the power and opportunity to help him rebuild the walls. He says to the builders, “We will no longer be in disgrace.”

God speaks to you today, just as surely as He spoke to Israel about Jerusalem: “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires. I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones” (Isaiah 54:11-12). “‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has [soothing, tender] compassion on you [as a mother has with her infant]” (verse 10).

So put one foot in front of the other, and trust Him. He is bringing you into a wide and spacious land, a place of rest and peace and joy and strength. When the necessary walls have been rebuilt, when the beautiful city gates are set in place, when the storerooms are full to overflowing with blessing, then joy and peace will settle over your city to rule there, and you can say with assurance, “Lord, You have assigned me my portion and my cup: You have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” (Psalms 16:5-6).

O Lord, direct the work of rebuilding my heart and life, in spite of past disaster and trauma. Strengthen my heart and mind and will to complete the work to your glory. I want to be a dazzling, holy city set on a hill that brings glory to You, a city with walls, gates, and storerooms of blessing to pour out to others. You have given me a delightful inheritance. Amen.