Rebuilding Brokenness by Learning from Nehemiah

Rebuilding brokenness by learning from Nehemiah will help you restore and renew your life after a shattering experience. We live in a broken world, and too often it breaks a place deep in our hearts.

Rebuilding Brokenness When You’re Shattered Inside

Did you know that there are lessons on brokenness to be learned from Nehemiah while he rebuilt the Jerusalem wall?

Your world is your home, your family, where you worship, work, and are involved in your community. Your daily interactions with and living in can seem as large as the whole planet.

I don’t know what problems have touched your life. What I do know is that in this world, we are not exempt from emotional pain and the brokenness that can shatter our lives.

So whether it is relationships and divorce or drifting of children, friends, or hurtful situations at church or work, there are lessons that you can learn from the book of Nehemiah.

These lessons can help you rebuild brokenness in your life when you’re shattered inside.

Nehemiah Rebuilding Broken Wall

If you haven’t read Nehemiah in a long time (or ever), now is the time to stop and read the first chapter. If you slow down long enough, you might learn some lessons from him, like I have.

No one is quite sure whether Ezra (the book before Nehemiah) or Nehemiah himself wrote this book in the Old Testament with thirteen chapters.

I’ll be honest, although I’ve read it before, I had never slowed down to dig a little deeper into Nehemiah. I’m sure that what I’ll share in this article (and those to follow), I’m only skimming off the surface, and my pastor or yours would be able to go DEEPER.

My point is to encourage you to take time with Jesus each day. Even to read and study the Old Testament. You don’t have to spend an hour. You can break it up into bite-sized nuggets with your busy day.

Survivors Distressed with Brokenness

The Jewish people had been captives in Babylonia, and after returning to Jerusalem, they were distressed by the brokenness of the wall surrounding the city.

The wall around Jerusalem was built to protect the town from neighboring civilizations from attacking those living within. During the captivity, the Jews were unable to maintain the structure, and it had places where it was broken down.

This is what’s happening in the following two verses from Nehemiah chapter one.

And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:3-4

Observation of Happenings:

• Jews who had survived the captivity in Babylon escaped!
• Hanani came with these men from Judah!
• They told Nehemiah that the wall was broken down in Jerusalem!
• Nehemiah wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed!

Rebuilding Brokenness by Learning from Nehemiah

The name Nehemiah means Yahweh has comforted. Before we even begin reading this wonderful book, his name reveals to us that his words will bring comfort.

If your world is shattered and your brokenness needs rebuilding, this book will guide you on how to overcome troubles and trust in God while showing Nehemiah’s prayer life, leadership, and faithfulness to his God.

Nehemiah isn’t even in Jerusalem as the story unravels. He is a long way away from Jerusalem. He was a slave for a foreign king in Persia in 444 BC.

He is a man of prayer who prays fervently and continually. That’s something I want to improve on.

How about you?

He’s not a spiritual leader or prophet, although I would have thought he was just because he is the main character of this book. His fasting and praying trigger a change in the way prayer is intended.

Here are some important things you can learn from Nehemiah:

• Learn how to pray by praying Nehemiah’s prayer and adjusting it to your situation!
• Ask yourself, what is broken down in my life?
• Humble yourself as Nehemiah did!
• Confess and repent!
• Ask God to be attentive to your situation and needs!
• Mourn over what is broken in your life!

If you are dealing with brokenness in your life, you can learn so much from Nehemiah.

The first thing we can learn is to begin to fervently pray as he did. Prayer begins with repentance that clears and cleans areas of our lives that are not pleasing to God.

Start with repentance and prayer, and come back and read more on the series about Nehemiah.

You will learn the process of rebuilding brokenness in your life as you read about how the Jewish people rebuilt the broken wall surrounding Jerusalem.

Are you rebuilding brokenness in your life?

God wants to be the One rebuilding your brokenness. This happens when we fervently pray as Nehemiah did.

You can find illustrations of the book of Nehemiah in Jesus Journaling.

Verse Mapping is a type of journaling, and you may READ MORE HERE!

I shared about the Nehemiah Project in Jesus Journaling.

Don’t be afraid of studying Nehemiah. If I can slow down as I read and journal through Nehemiah, so can you!

I’m not a theologian, and I do my best in my devotionals to demonstrate how to draw closer to Jesus.