Daily Reading: Nehemiah 7
The city was wide and large, but the people within it were few, and no houses had been rebuilt. (Nehemiah 7.4)
Devotional Thought: The wall is complete … the gates are installed … and the work is done. What began as an impossible undertaking birthed in the heart of one man has become a reality! But even though the wall was finished, Nehemiah wasn’t! For he also wanted the city of Jerusalem to prosper and thrive. He noticed the population was low and there were many abandoned homes, so he set out to do something about that fact.
In many ways, this picture of a largely empty Jerusalem and Nehemiah’s tender heart is a symbol of the vastness of God’s Kingdom and his affectionate heart for every searching and lost person. Jesus wants every man, woman, and child to find their way to, and have a home in, the city of God. And he wants to use people like you and me to help them make their way there.
In the Upper Room, Jesus shared with his disciples that his Father’s house has many rooms and he was going to prepare a place so they could be with him where he is (John 14.1-3). He also said, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the road that leads to death is crowded while the road that leads to life is rather empty (Matt. 7.13-14). The implication is there’s always room for more … that the provision of God is ample and vast enough to span the breadth of humanity. The apostle Peter put it this way: "The Lord … is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3.9).
Bottom line: Just as Nehemiah set about filling Jerusalem once the walls were complete, so God wants us to give ourselves to populating his Kingdom and supplying it with inhabitants.
John Whitsett
Prayer: Heavenly Father … thanks for reminding me your heart spans the entirety of the human race, and that you have made room for them. Let me be someone who sees people around me the way you do and leverages opportunities to influence them so they can perhaps come to know you in the way that I have. Amen.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 107:4-9
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
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