Graceways October 2 Devotional

NEHEMIAH 2:3-5, 13 | ³ I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my ancestors’ graves, lies waste and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” ⁴ Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵ Then I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my ancestors’ graves, so that I may rebuild it.”

¹³ I went out by night by the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.

Problem solving always begins with problem analysis. Rushing to get to a solution without assessment wastes time and resources. Nehemiah saw two immediate needs to be addressed: permission and security.

If he was able to address the Jerusalem issue at all, it could only be by permission of the king at Babylon. The king’s authority was a necessary pre-requisite. He waited for an opportune time, shared his feelings about Jerusalem’s sorry state, and secured permission to try and rectify it. Then upon arrival, he conducted an extensive personal survey of the damage to the city walls stemming from Nebuchadnezzars second siege. He needed to see and understand the scale and nature of the problem before fixing it.

Are you good at assessing problems?

Gracious God,

Give me the patience to understand problems before I seek solutions. Grant me practical wisdom.

Amen.