Everything breaks.   Everything.

Recently, our above-ground pool broke. Our mower broke.  Our clothes dryer broke. Our oven broke.  Our ice maker broke.

The pool was a total loss.  My friend analyzed the mower problem and the part was replaced.  I fixed the clothes dryer with my wife’s guidance.  My wife fixed the oven. She's great!  The ice maker is still in limbo.

The Bible teaches us that we are living in a broken world.  What that means is everything in this world falls apart.  Everything that is living is dying.  Everything that has been built will eventually need to be replaced.

All this brokenness began to happen when sin entered the world.  The curse of sin degraded everything.  It had a negative effect on man’s relationship with God as well as on the entire planet.  God told Adam and Eve, “Cursed is the ground because of you”.   It wasn’t just their relationship with Him that was cursed.  It was also the soil, the plants, and the animals.  Everything the earth produces!

So because of sin, we all wear out.  Because of sin, everything we manufacture and build wears out.  When sin entered the world time became our enemy.   

But that doesn’t mean we just give up.  What it means is that we have to work very, very hard at maintaining and repairing.

The facts are the facts. Time causes things to break. Ignoring things for too long causes things to break. Sloppy workmanship causes things to break.  Messed-up priorities cause things to break.

When the material stuff we own breaks that's one thing.   But breaking becomes really serious when we begin talking about - Broken emotions. Broken relationships. Broken marriages. Broken trust. Broken hopes and dreams.

Nehemiah was a Jew who wrote the book in the Bible that bears his name. He is famous for heading up the repair project of the broken walls of Jerusalem.  The story of Nehemiah begins with him being the Cupbearer to King Artaxerxes in Babylon.  His job was to personally pour and present to the king whatever the king chose to drink.  The cupbearer was there to prevent someone from poisoning the king.  So we know that Nehemiah was a thoroughly trustworthy person.  He also know he was a servant.    

Nehemiah received news from back home that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates had been burned.  This meant that Jerusalem was both unprotected and disgraced.  After all a city without walls was not a city at all.

Here’s the beginning of Nehemiah’s story.

Nehemiah 1:1-11

These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah.

In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. 5 Then I said,

“O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, 6 listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! 7 We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.

8 “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. 9 But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

10 “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. 11 O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”

I was cupbearer to the king.

Let me ask you… Is there anything in your life that is falling apart?  How’s your relationship with your family?  How’s your relationship with the Lord? How are you doing emotionally?  Are the walls of your marriage sound and secure?  Are you broken spiritually?  Are you facing difficult decisions that are overwhelming you mentally?

Know this: It’s not unusual for anyone at any time to be broken, or to feel broken, in one or more facets of life.

Regardless of what brokenness with which we are dealing, Nehemiah shows us how to begin putting the pieces back together.

He shows us first of all there has to be DESIRE to fix it.

When Nehemiah heard the news about the walls of Jerusalem, it made him sick. And he knew he had to try and do something about the problem.  He didn’t know what he could do.  But his desire was to see the walls completely repaired.

When our clothes dryer broke, we had the desire to fix it.  If we didn’t have that desire, the dryer would still be sitting there useless.  Because clothes dryers don’t fix themselves.

Guess what?  Broken relationships don’t fix themselves.  Broken marriages don’t fix themselves. Broken fellowship with the Lord doesn’t fix itself.   

Nothing broken improves until someone has the desire to fix it and takes the needed actions to do it.  Failing marriages continue to collapse unless there’s a real desire to do the right thing and fix them.  If you don’t have the desire to know God more, your walk with Him will grow cold.

So think about what might be breaking in your life.  Here's the big question: Do you really want to fix it?   I hope you do.

Nehemiah wanted to fix what was broken.

The next step he took was to seek the Lord’s advice.

Nehemiah said that for days he mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

I want you to notice what he didn't do.   He didn’t seek advice from his friends in the kitchen.  He didn't see advice from his buddy, Hanani (the one who came from Jerusalem with the bad news).

He went straight to the One who had the answer.  He went to the Lord.  You can trust the Lord to always have the right answer. His advice is always perfect.

I think too often some people are quick to run to others for advice, instead of seeking God’s advice first. The reason they circumvent God is generally because they really don’t want to hear what God is going to tell them.

I know that God’s advice will not always be what we want to hear. His counsel might bring conviction. His recommendation might take us in the opposite direction our carnal mind is trying to pull us.

I knew of a situation many years ago where a young woman was sharing negative things about her husband with her co-workers. Immediately she was given free advice from her co-workers.  They began advising her to get a divorce.  Do you know why they wanted her to get a divorce? So they would look better than her.  We may not realize it, but we are often surrounded by people who want us to fail.  We have to be very careful who we go to for advice.   

Proverbs 18:24 There are “friends” who destroy each other,

     but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will suffer harm.

Here’s a good question to ask yourself: Who do you hang with?  Who are those men and women you go to seeking advice?   On the flip side, are others coming to you because they see wisdom?  Are others seeking your wise counsel?

We have no better friend than Jesus. He will never give bad advice. He loves us more than we probably love ourselves. He wants us to live a successful life of significance and purpose. That life is a life that will bring glory to God.

Nehemiah heard about the problem. He had a desire to fix it. Then he began trying to figure out what to do by seeking the Lord.

Jesus said to do this…

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33)

We seek the Lord by talking to Him and listening for Him to speak to us in that still small voice.  Some people have lives that are so busy, their schedules so tight, and so many of the things of this world to think about they don’t have time for prayer.   

I am a relatively busy person. Even though I was able to recently reduce some of my responsibilities, I have plenty of ways to be busy every day. In fact, I’m so busy every day that I don’t have time to not pray.  I cannot imagine being able to accomplish much without keeping the communication line open between God and me.

I love the example of Susanna Wesley and how she made time for prayer.

Susanna Wesley (January 20, 1669 - July 23, 1742) was a wife and mother. She gave birth to 19 children, 10 of whom survived. Two of her boys, John and Charles, were used by our Lord to impact the course of the church for centuries.  Susanna homeschooled the ten children with strict school hours 9 to Noon and 2 to 5, six days a week. In the meantime, she ran the household and the small farm. Plus, she designated one hour of alone time each night before bedtime with a different child on a scheduled rotation.

Early in her life, she vowed that she would never spend more time in leisure entertainment than she did in prayer and Bible study.  Even amid the most complex and busy years of her life as a mother, she still scheduled two hours each day for fellowship with God and time in His Word, and she adhered to that schedule faithfully. Her challenge was finding a place of privacy in a house filled with children.

Her solution to this was to bring her Bible to her favorite chair and throw her long apron up over her head, forming a sort of tent. Every person in the household, including the youngest children, knew that when their mother was under the apron, she was with God and was not to be disturbed unless one of them was bleeding.

We seek God by carving out time to pray. We find His advice in prayer. We find His desires in prayer. We discover then that God is molding our minds and hearts to dovetail with His desires. And we find then that God’s desire is to come alongside us and fix what is breaking down.

If you’re dealing with brokenness, I hope you have a desire to fix it. Maybe you don’t.  I encourage you to ask God for the desire. Ask Him to plant a seed of desire in your heart today. Ask Him to water and nurture that seed so it takes root and grows within you.

With that desire, I hope you’ll seek God’s advice. What’s the next step? What’s the right step? Ask God what you need to do, or not do, to start putting the brokenness back together.

Psalm 147:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.