Day 3: In the wilderness
“Because of Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take” (Nehemiah 9:19).
Our Father in heaven, “Blessed be Your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship You” (Nehemiah 9:5-6).
You spoke Your promise to Your ancient people, and repeated it to the church of the firstborn—(Hebrews 12:23)—the body of believers in Jesus Christ, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6, 8; Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5). And as with Your covenant with Abraham, and all Your other assurances, You have kept Your promise because You are righteous (Nehemiah 9:8).
Even in all their years of wandering in the wilderness, Your people were never away from Your loving eye (Psalm 32:8).“Because of Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the wilderness..." (Nehemiah 9:19). You remained righteous—You acted faithfully even when they acted wickedly (Nehemiah 9:33).
God of compassion, we too, need Your guiding light in this wilderness of wickedness and awful blasphemies (Nehemiah 9:18). As with Your ancient people, You have given us Your regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. But like them, we have refused to listen, and we have failed to remember Your great mercies and miracles. (Nehemiah 9:13,17).
We have left the shelter of Your commands, and just as they did, we have appointed... leader[s] (spiritual, judicial, societal, civic and political) in order to return to [our] bondage (Nehemiah 9:17). And our communities—our entire world—increasingly struggles with the consequences of violence and lawlessness, hatred and hostility, turmoil and confusion, disruption and disorder, fear and anxiety.
O Lord, as we enter another year of daunting statistics and disappointing "solutions", have mercy on us. Forgive our rebellion, and show us the way. You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love (Nehemiah 9:17). Do not abandon the works of Your hands (Psalm 138:8).
Like Your people of old, we have nothing to recommend us to You—we cast ourselves on Your mercy, Your grace, and Your great faithfulness. In this spiritual wasteland, sustain us as You sustained them in the wilderness. Give us Your good Spirit to instruct [us]. Do not withhold your manna from [our] mouths, give us water for [our] thirst (Nehemiah 9:20-21).
Father, we cry out for relief from the spiritual famine in this generation. Stir our hearts to desperate petition as we think of the words of the prophet:
"Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at every street corner (Lamentations 2:19).
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