Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Neomyah 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.

Oh, this just carries on the theme, doesn't it, of what we've been praying through in Ezra,

writing in Neomyah after seeing Ezra at the end of the book that bears his name,

falling on his face and weeping and mourning over sin and praying and fasting and and treating God.

So now, at the very beginning of the book of Neomyah, to read as soon as he heard about how the walls were broken down around Jerusalem

and the people were in disgrace.

He sat down and wept and mourned for days.

He continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven, the same themes here again.

And specifically here, in light of the need that Neomyah was made aware of and the verses right before this,

he asked about the people who had returned to Jerusalem and he hears verse 3 says,

the remnant there who has survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.

All of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire.

And in response to that news about how the people were in such need, Neomyah sits down and weeps and mourns and fasts and prays

and I just wonder if it might be valuable for us not just in this podcast episode in a broader way to pause and reflect on

the needs and our local churches, the needs for health and peace and joy and strength and focus on mission and focus on God's glory and unity.

So many different things and each one of us has different churches that were a part of like what are the needs among God's people that would cause us to sit down and weep and mourn and fast and pray for God's grace in the middle of that.

And then I would take it to another level as well like needs in the world around us.

Like doesn't it seem right to fast and to pray and to mourn and weep over 3 billion people who have little to no knowledge of the gospel today?

The God would change that. The God would cause the unreached to be reached and then specific ways to pray for Yemen and the church and Yemen or Somalia

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