When the News Breaks Your Heart
Nehemiah 1:1–4
Every now and then, life delivers a sentence that changes everything. One phone call, one test result, one late-night message — and suddenly the world tilts beneath your feet. Nehemiah knew that feeling. Living in the luxury of Persia’s winter palace, he could have easily insulated himself from the suffering of God’s people in Jerusalem. But he dared to ask the dangerous question: “How are the people? How is the city?”
The answer shattered him — “The remnant is in great trouble and shame. The wall is broken down.”
Nehemiah collapses into grief. He weeps, mourns, fasts, and prays. What breaks his heart is not simply a city in ruins, but a people living in shame, insecurity, and spiritual confusion. The glory of God has been trampled, and he feels it deeply.
We live in a world full of brokenness too — homelessness in our streets, addictions enslaving our youth, families fractured, and thousands in our own suburbs living without any knowledge of Jesus. And yet… we often feel nothing. Our hearts have grown quiet.
But Nehemiah reminds us that holy work begins with holy tears. He shows us what it looks like to refuse numbness, to feel again what God feels, and to allow compassion to destabilise our comfort.
Today, dare to pray a dangerous prayer:
“Lord, break my heart with what breaks Yours.”
Ask the Spirit to soften what comfort has hardened. Let your heart feel again. Because God often begins His greatest work not with action, but with a burden — a burden that moves us to our knees and awakens us to the world He has placed right in front of us.