A Heartfelt Prayer

"O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer if your servants who delight to fear your name..." Nehemiah 1:11

Many things are incorporated into fearing the Lord...It umbrellas accepting his power and his ability to do all things, make all things, his ability to judge righteously and yet love unconditionally, his ability to jump in and out of time, in and out of realms. The beautiful thing is that this fear does not drive the believer further away from God, but emits a constants pull through wounder...this fear pushes the believer to pray with their whole heart, to worship with their whole being... Delighting in fearing the name of the Lord is a great thing, a beautiful thing.

Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer in a time of distress (when he heard that the great wall of Jerusalem had been broken down and its gates consumed by fire [Neh. 1:3]) is inspiring to me. In the midst of his brokenness, he lays his heart before the Lord, yearning out to his father...O Lord, hear me, be aware of me in my pain, in my suffering. I am your servant, I acknowledge my place; I understand your greatness and fear you, serve you. Help me in this time.

"O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant and I now pray before you day and night..."

Nehemiah 1:5-6

the BLACK

The night had already fallen onto the earth when I made my observation. As my eyes skimmed the perfectly flat, black road, I was filled will remorse as the thought struck me that... this black blanket of death laid over the soil of the whole of the Earth was born from man, and even worse, the realization that man has become accustomed to it; it has somehow slipped into our thought of normality. I imagine a world with no pavement....I imagine walking in the night, my toes sinking into the soil, still slightly damp from the rain earlier in the day....I imagine looking out at a "city" and not seeing black, but seeing hundreds of shades of green and brown mix together like a painting. This is the world promised to us through Christ, this is the world I await!

" ¹ Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

ReVeLaTiOn 21:1-5