Thursday - Don’t Go to the Comments, Go to God

"Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity: And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee: for they have provoked thee to anger before the builders.”
- Nehemiah 4:4-5

"Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.”
- Psalm 62:8

When the mockery came, Nehemiah had a choice about what to do with it. He did not fire back. He did not draft a response. He did not escalate. He prayed. "Hear, O our God; for we are despised." That is the whole opening. No preamble. No formality. Just honesty. He walked straight into the presence of God and told Him exactly how things stood.

Nearly a third of the Psalms are psalms of lament. David, a man after God's own heart, spent a significant portion of his prayer life saying things like "God, where are You?" and "God, I don't understand" and "God, this is hard." That means honest, uncomfortable, even anguished prayer is not a sign of weak faith. It is a mark of real relationship. God is not looking for polished performances. He is looking for real ones.

Some of us have been so conditioned to keep it together in front of everybody that we have started keeping it together in front of God too. But He already knows. He already sees it. First Peter 5:7 says to cast "all your care upon him; for he careth for you." Not some of it. All of it. Do not argue with the trolls. Tell God about them. That is what Nehemiah did, and it is still the right move today.

Reflect:

-              When opposition or discouragement comes, what is your first instinct: to react, to retaliate, to retreat, or to pray?

 

-              Is there something you have been too polished to bring to God honestly? What would it look like to lay it down unfiltered?

 

-               What care have you been carrying this week that you have not yet cast on God?