This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back for day two of our look through the book of Nehemiah,
week one of this look through Nehemiah. We started yesterday looking at how God
wants to re-energize your life, how He wants to re-energize your relationships,
your career, your faith. And we're looking together at seven ways in the book of
Nehemiah.

Reaction, the first way, is beginning to see my problems as opportunities. We're
going to look at that today. And then in coming days and weeks, we're going to
look at initiation, taking the first step, recognition, the value of a thank
you, opposition, how to expect and reject opposition, organization, how to
organize your successes, celebration, how to release the joy, and then
dedication, how to commit yourself to something worth living for.

But it all begins with reaction. And reaction has to do with how you react to
the problem that creates the need to rebuild, the need to be re-energized in
your life. One of the keys for re-energizing your life, one of the keys to
rebuilding anything in your life is the way that you look at problems.

The reason this is so important is your reaction to a problem is determined by
the way that you see that problem. If you look at a problem and you say it's a
disaster, then your reaction is going to despair because everything is lost. If
you look at a problem and you think it's unnecessary, that shouldn't have
happened, then your reaction is irritation.

This could have been avoided. If you look at a problem and you think it's
unfair, then your reaction is anger, maybe anger at God, maybe anger at the
person you think cheated you. If you look at a problem and you think, well, it's
deserved, I did it to myself, then your reaction might be guilt.

But if you look at a problem and you think it's an opportunity, it's an
opportunity to trust God, if nothing else it's an opportunity, then your
reaction is faith, the kind of faith that leads to a different action in your
life, a different direction in your life. You see, you want the kind of reaction
that leads to action and a different direction and the only thing that can cause
that to happen on a consistent basis in your life is faith. So let's look at
Nehemiah's problem and how he reacted.

Nehemiah's problem is found in Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 3, "Those who survive
the exile are back in the province and are in great trouble and disgrace. The
wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. " So
the problem is the people of God are living in disgrace and the cause of that
problem is the walls of Jerusalem were in ruins.

Now you might remember from history that a city's walls were not a decoration in
those days. A city's walls were its protection, they were its military defense
and they're in ruins. So any enemy can come in and attack them and a city's
gates, it says the gates have been burned with fire, the gates were the civic
gathering place, that's where the courts, the legislature happened.

So there is no control in this entire city. Now that's what they're facing.
We'll get a little more into the history of this in a few moments but before
that, let's turn to our lives, your life, my life.

The big question here is, how do you react to a problem? Do you react to a
problem in such a way that you take advantage of the opportunity or do you react
to a problem in such a way that you're overwhelmed by the need? The Bible
clearly tells us, clearly tells us again and again that our problems are to be
seen as God's opportunities for faith in our lives.

Says this again and again, a few verses from the New Testament, James 1, 7,
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds. " It
says, "You know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. " 2
Corinthians 4, 17, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

" Romans 5, 3, "We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering
produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. " So again
and again and again, the Bible says the opportunity in any problem is to react
with faith, knowing that God's going to use that problem to develop my faith, to
develop my heart, to develop my hope. That's what the Bible tells us.

The question is, how do you do this? And Nehemiah shows us the way. Nehemiah's
life gives some practical advice for how to react to problems in a new kind of
way.

Because when we talk about reacting in a different way, it's more than just
knowing that you should think this way. Just knowing you should think this way
can just create guilt. Yeah, I should have more faith, I know I should have more
faith.

But I don't have more faith. All I can see is the problem is what you're
thinking. Nehemiah shows us some practical things that you can do.

Nehemiah is a living, breathing example of how to move from the shock of a
problem to a reaction of faith. Look at what happens. Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4
tells you the secret.

It unlocks the treasure of how to do this. Here's what Nehemiah did. "When I
heard these things," chapter 1 verse 4, "I sat down and I wept.

For some days I mourned and I fasted and I prayed. " Those three choices that
you just heard me read that Nehemiah made in the last half of verse 4 helped him
to move from his first reaction of shock and sadness to a reaction of
faith-filled action. He mourned and he fasted and he prayed.

Mourning, that is expressing your hurt to God. That is focusing your attention
on God and praying. That is asking for help from God.

I want you to notice that beginning to see your problem as an opportunity for
faith, it often involves a process. It's not just turning a switch. There's a
process here.

Those who've learned to see problems as opportunities are learning to make the
right choices in that process. You see, if you face a circumstance of a hurt or
a loss in your life, you can have a negative reaction or a positive reaction.
You could take that hurt or a loss and a negative reaction would be to deny that
it ever happened in your mind, to pretend that it's not that bad a hurt in your
mind.

Denial is a favorite negative response, but it doesn't get us to faith. Nehemiah
teaches us that the positive response is to mourn, to mourn that hurt in God's
presence. My circumstances, I cannot choose my circumstances, but my responses,
I can choose my responses.

So if I have a hurt or a loss, I can choose to respond with denial or I can
choose to respond with mourning. Mourning, what really happened? If I'm facing
confusion in my life because of a circumstance in my life, I can choose to
respond with escape.

That's a negative response, or I can choose to respond by fasting, by focusing
on God. I can try to lose my focus by escaping into some television show or
movie or into some vacation or into some many, many years escape that some
people focus on, or I can focus on God. Nehemiah chose to fast and to focus on
God.

When I face a need for help in the midst of a problem, I can choose a negative
response, worry, or I can choose a positive response, prayer. I cannot choose my
circumstances. I have very little control, not as much as I'd even like to think
I have over my circumstances, but I can choose every single time.

I can choose my response to that circumstance, and Nehemiah teaches us how. He
also teaches us it doesn't happen in a moment. It happens in this process of
life, and tomorrow we're going to begin to look together at these three
responses.

How do you do this? What does he teach us about how to do this? How do you
mourn?

How do you fast? How do you pray? As we begin today to look at your response to
a problem, let's begin with the problem and just bring it to God.

Begin with what you're facing. The first part of facing it is facing it, the
reality of it. So in prayer, would you just talk for a few minutes with me to
the Lord who loves you?

Talk about the problem that you're facing. And in these moments, just say, "God,
here it is. Here is the problem.

Here's what's causing the hurt in my life. " A lot of people may know about it,
and no one may know about it. But the issue is, have you talked to God about it?

You are now. Say to him, "God, I bring this problem to you. And I don't want to
react in a way that causes me to lose my faith or to look away from you.

I don't want to react in a way that causes me to become caught up in this world
instead of caught up in my love for you. I want to react in a way that increases
my faith, that increases my hope, that does the things that the Bible talks
about can happen through my problems. I need you for that, God.

I need you. Of course, I'd like you to change this problem immediately. I'd like
it to just go away.

And I pray for that. I do pray that the problem would go away. But God, that's
not the most important thing, even though it seems that way emotionally to me.

The most important thing, God, is what you want to do in my heart, what you want
to do in my life. And so I come to you and I say, "Here's the problem. God,
would you work in my life to strengthen, to increase my faith even through this
problem?

" I pray this with confidence because your word says you can do this. Your word
says you want to do this. So help me to look at this problem and consider it joy
that you want to work in my life.

Help me to look at this problem and consider that this light and momentary
trouble is that way in comparison to the eternal glory you want to work in my
life through this problem. Help me to look at this problem and rejoice, not
because of the suffering, but because of what you want to do through it, that
you want to produce perseverance and character and hope in my life. I ask this
in Jesus' name, amen.

Join us tomorrow. We'll continue to dig in to these three responses that help us
to begin to see problems as God's opportunities.