"Thou art a gracious and compassionate God. "
Nehemiah 9:31
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Read It: Nehemiah 9:26-38
The 1985 earthquake in Mexico City toppled a number of buildings, including a thirteen-story building called Nuevo Leon. The whole building just toppled over. This building was not supposed to collapse, because it was equipped with hydraulic stabilizers. These are mechanisms that allow a structure to move when there is an earthquake, stabilizing it and allowing it to ride out the quake without collapsing. Well, they found out later that the hydraulic stabilizers were not working ing on the Nuevo Leon building at the time of the quake, so the structure crashed down even though it had everything it needed to stand tall. I think you can see how this story illustrates the lives of those who name the name of Christ. Many of us are going through earthquakes in our lives, and we're toppling over because the spiritual stabilizers God has built into us are not being used. They are out of service, rusted and frozen up from disuse. I think prayer is one of those often unused stabilizers. It was for Israel at various times, and it is for us. Our text this week has given us a great picture of what happens when an entire people get plugged back into God in prayer. By the end of this prayer (v. 38), the people are ready to make a new covenant with God, put it in writing, and sign it. They want God to hold them liable. They're getting serious about this business of being God's people.
They're saying, "We never want to come this way again." There's another stabilizer in this passage: the grace of God. It can enable you to stand tall in any situation, but the way you tap into God's grace and power is by going before Him on your knees and on your face if necessary. Do you know why you don't want to spend a long time without being serious with God? Because there is too much disaster in between. It is hard to try and fix things up that have been messed up. It's better to keep your stabilizers in good working order so they won't get broken. Think About It The time to find out whether your prayer life works is not when the ground under you starts rocking and rolling.
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