Today’s prayer is probably one of the most dangerous prayers and when it’s answered it will cause discomfort and difficulty, but following Jesus was never meant to be boring or comfortable.
Jeremiah 8:18-21
Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet because he grieved over the plight of the city.
What if God’s greatest blessings comes from God’s greatest breaking. What if the most special blessings come from the other side of the pain and it moves you from a self-focus to an others focus. We all love comfort and that’s okay, but the problem is comfort never moved us to action and this is a dangerous prayer as it snaps us out of our self-centred pursuit of comfort and we look at the things God has called us to do.
How do you get the heart of God? Let’s look at Nehemiah, he had a pretty comfortable life but then his heart was broken and his life was completely transformed.
- We see
- Nehemiah 1:3
- Nehemiah saw how bad the situation was and the danger for us is we can go around with our head in the sands, we don’t want to know what’s happening in the world.
- Are you eager to know the truth and really see the situation of the world that we live in?
- God has placed people in godless and pagan places to see and act, like Joseph in Egypt and Esther in Babylon.
- We feel
- Nehemiah 1:4
- Nehemiah’s heart was broken over what he’d seen and was moved deeply. This wasn’t new information for Nehemiah, as it had been 141 years since Babylon had attacked Jerusalem, but it was new revelation.
- When our heart is broken, we’ll be moved about things that perhaps previously we’d just thought ‘well that’s just the way it is’, there will be new revelation.
- We pray
- Nehemiah 1:5-6
- Nehemiah reminds himself of the truth of who God is and then he turns to confession and takes on responsibility for the situation that Israel is in, he doesn’t blame and criticise others.
- When God breaks your heart we need to confess our sins and vulnerabilities before God.
- Nehemiah 1:8-9
- He then asks God remember the promises given Moses, he clings onto truth.
- When our heart breaks we need to stand on God’s word, his truth and to pray God’s word back to him.
- We act
- Nehemiah 1:11
- Nehemiah is essentially saying here I am, send me.
- When God breaks our heart, he often then says you are part of the solution.
Will you pray God break my heart? If you do God will take you out of your comfort zone and you’ll driven by a higher calling. It isn’t easy and will be a struggle but it’s better to hurt with a purpose than to exist without one.
The greatest example of this is Jesus, he saw a world of sin and pain and he felt such love for people that he wept over Jerusalem, he endured the cross for the joy of knowing that people would be saved. Eternal life has been won for us because Jesus saw, felt, prayed and then acted.