I’m sharing this under conviction. It is as much to me as to you. The question, “Have we lost our tears?” impacts me personally as I look at my spiritual life and what concerns me most.

One of my favorite Old Testament books is Nehemiah. There is so much in the story of the cupbearer to the king who became God’s leader for his day. So, when my longtime friend Dr. O. S. Hawkins wrote The Nehemiah Code: It’s Never Too Late for a New Beginning, I wanted to see what might be in it for me.

You remember Nehemiah’s story. The Israelites had been exiled. Only a remnant remained in Jerusalem, and the enemy took advantage of that, tearing down the walls of the city of David, making the people more vulnerable to attacks. Nehemiah was in exile, too, but his heart was with his people in Jerusalem. He sought out people who could tell him what was happening there. And what he learned impacted him greatly.

When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.

Nehemiah 1:4 NLT

Nehemiah did several things upon learning of the situation in Jerusalem.

  • He made an honest evaluation of the situation.
  • He identified with the needs of the people.
  • He mourned, fasted, and prayed.

And he did one more thing.

Nehemiah wept.

I grew up in an era when churches would on occasion have all-night prayer meetings. They were marked by passionate prayer … and tears. More recent outbreaks of God’s spirit have been characterized by fervent prayer, confession of sin … and weeping.

So, I ask myself as I ask you … where are the tears today? Where is the passion for the will of the Lord in our world, our culture, our lives, our family, ourselves? Where?

Most of us want to be seen as strong leaders. We want others to look to us to draw insight and wisdom. We want to be seen as a powerful person in the Lord’s army. Weeping seems weak. And as a leader, we don’t want to be weak.

What did the Apostle Paul say to the Corinthians?

If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am.

2 Corinthians 11:30 NLT

Dr. Hawkins says that Nehemiah recognized his inability to do anything on his own. Yet he was so overwhelmed by the need, he knew he must do something. In The Nehemiah Code, Hawkins says,

“The more I have studied the process of rebuilding, the more convinced I have become that one never rebuilds until he personally identifies with the need and weeps over the ruins. We live in a culture that seems to have lost its tears. Nehemiah did what all godly leaders must do: he drew strength from outside himself, from His Lord.”

Godly tears equal passion. And without passion for the things you see around you, you will most likely never see your goal accomplished.

As I understand it, the objective is not “tears.” The objective is such a deep passion for the Lord … His will and His ways…that we immerse ourselves completely in accomplishing the Lord’s plan…in His strength, even to the point of tears.

Pondering and praying…