Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4.

As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting

and praying before the God of heaven.

So this is the first picture we see of Nehemiah in this book that's named after him. He's just found out that the walls around Jerusalem have been broken down, its gates burned with fire,

the people there are struggling, God is not receiving glory like he deserves in that city from that people among the nations around them and it just causes

Nehemiah to weep, to mourn for days.

And then it says he continued fasting

and praying before the God of heaven.

And we find out, so Nehemiah chapter two is when he begins to act as cup bear to the king and go to the king and ask for permission to go and help the people in Jerusalem.

But we know that was months after he received this news.

So this picture of him weeping and mourning and fasting and praying and lasted for a matter of

months before he actually acted on something.

When I read that, I think that's so different from me.

I think often from us. We're're so quick to act, like we see need, we're like,

we're like, let's do something about it, which is good, that is a good impulse, we want to respond to need,

but if we're not careful, we'll bypass this picture that we see in Nehemiah of

weeping and fasting and praying before God, that his first impulse was to fall to his knees before God

when he saw need around him.

Just a reminder of the importance, the significance of prayer, and not just prayer, but

fasting. I don't know if you have a regular routine of fasting in your life, but I want to encourage you if you don't

to make that a regular routine.

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