BEYOND THE TEARS-1
Nehemiah 1:4 “And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,”

In our focal scripture, when Nehemiah heard all the negative reports about his people and the city of Jerusalem, he sat down and wept and mourned for some days. He let out the negative emotions and God didn’t fault him. He knew that:

Psalms 30:5 “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Friend, Nehemiah cried but his attention was on the morning. He knew there is a morning ahead that brings joy. What you do after the tears is what matters!

He cried but he knew that sitting down, crying and mourning doesn’t proffer solutions, it just enables you to let out the negative emotions and energy that is building up within you. May I also add that the faster you come out from the crying mode, the faster your night season ends, and you get translated into your morning of joy.

Now, what did Nehemiah do beyond the tears?

The Bible says, he fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. He wasn’t just crying like a hopeless man, he switched over to fasting and prayer. When a challenge hits you, the remedy is not the crying but the fasting and prayers.

No wonder, Jesus came several years after and gave us the principle behind it:

Mark 9:29 “And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”

Friend, prayer and fasting are two powerful forces that destroys and demobilizes demonic installations. One of the primary things that fasting does is to subdue the flesh. When challenges come and you respond by weeping, the enemy will want you to stay perpetually in that pity party mode, but fasting helps to subdue the desires of the flesh and helps you concentrate on God.

However, when you fast and don’t pray, you’re simply on hunger strike because after the fasting there will be no solution and you’ll revert back to weeping!

To be continued…

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