What Will You Do For Her?

“I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem”
Nehemiah 2:12

I can hardly read this passage without weeping or welling up inside with emotion.  This is nothing short of beautiful. So personal…MY God…So passionate…what he will do for Jerusalem…so secretive…he had not told anyone…so supernatural…what God had put on his heart.  He loved Jerusalem.  He wept over her.  He mourned over her.  He fasted and prayed for her night and day.  She had become Nehemiah’s greatest delight because she was God’s greatest delight. And Nehemiah loved HIS God.  It was a divine dream set out on a clandestine journey.

“If I forget you O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.  May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.” Psalm 137:5

When I decided to ask Carol to marry me 14 years ago, I planned an entire evening of events.  We went to special places.  Places that held memories for us.  We went to a specific restaurant.  We talked about certain things that together we held dear.  I wanted it to be this crazy secret thing I had planned for her...just for her.  Sometimes when we plan that special Christmas or birthday gift for our kids we get really excited.  We know it’s something they want really badly.  We anticipate the moment we give it to them.  Occasionally, we even make them earn it by following little clues that lead to the package.  

What has God secretly put on your heart to do for Jerusalem?  What has God burned inside of you to do for His church, His Bride, His eternal…beloved.  Do you see her beauty, her glory?  Do you hear the drumbeats, the music, the singing, the unending praises being declared from that distant land…the heavenly city that awaits us?  Stop for a moment.  Be very still.  You can hear them…if you have ears to hear.  

What has God put on your heart to do for His people?  Are you secretly excited?  Are you planning it all out like a special gift to be given…like a marriage proposal to be asked?  Are you riding through Jerusalem like Nehemiah, observing the torn down walls, the places of desolation, the broken down gates, the places burned down by fire, the areas in need of repair?  Are you on your knees pleading with God because you don’t know what to do…you don’t know how to fix it?

Do you hurt for her?  Do you want to help her?  Do you want to see God infuse new life into her?  Do you want to see her delivered of all the disgusting, vile, corrupt sin that so easily entangles her?  Do you want to see her delivered from the snare of the fowler?  Do you want to see her flowing in the holiness and the majesty and the glorious power and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King?

"If I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy".  Jerusalem must be our highest joy, our deepest treasure, our greatest mission.  Our nights should be sleepless with her intercession.  Our days should be filled with bricklaying...building up her walls.  She is the bride of Christ...His eternal pleasure...His family.  What will you do for her?