06/09/2026
New week. New strength. New Word.
Our new weekly devotional is live on Spotify! Let God’s Word speak into your week.
🎧 Start With Prayer - Nehemiah 1:4 (ESV)
Nehemiah 1:4 (ESV): “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.”
When you see something broken, what is your first response?
Do you immediately ask, “What should I do? How can I fix this? Who can help me?”
Those are natural questions. But Nehemiah teaches us that before we act, we should first pray.
When Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem’s walls were broken and its gates had been burned, he did not immediately make a plan. He did not blame others. He did not rush into action.
He sat down. He wept. He mourned. He fasted. And he prayed.
The broken walls became a burden in his heart, and that burden drove him to God.
This is important because prayer should be our first response, not our last resort.
Many times, we do the opposite. We worry. We discuss. We calculate. We try different solutions. Then, when nothing seems to work, we finally say, “All we can do now is pray.”
But for Nehemiah, prayer was not what he did when everything else failed. Prayer was where rebuilding began.
And notice how he prayed. He began not with the size of the problem, but with the greatness of God:
“O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God…” (Nehemiah 1:5).
Nehemiah’s problem was great, but his God was greater.
Maybe there is something in your life today that needs rebuilding—your prayer life, a relationship, your family, your spiritual growth, or perhaps a burden God has placed on your heart.
Before asking, “How can I fix this?” ask:
“Have I brought this to God?”
And perhaps an even deeper prayer is:
“Lord, before You rebuild what is broken around me, begin Your rebuilding work in me.”
Reflection:
What brokenness or burden has God placed before you? Have you been trying to fix it first, or have you been bringing it faithfully to Him in prayer?
Prayer:
Lord, teach me to make prayer my first response. When I see what is broken, help me seek You before I act. Give me a burden for what matters to You, remind me of Your greatness and faithfulness, and begin Your rebuilding work in me. Amen.
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