Colossians 3:1-4 & 12-17

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1 Peter 5:8

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

• Nehemiah 1:2-3
• Nehemiah 1:4 
  “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days....” 
   

Nehemiah 1:4-6

1.) PRAYER / TAKE IT TO GOD

2 Chronicles 7:14

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Proverbs 3:5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Matthew 18:4
“Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

2.) TRUST THAT GOD WILL PROVIDE THE RESOURCES FOR CHANGE

Matthew 6:3

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Nehemiah 2:11-12

“So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem.”

3.) YOU CAN EXPECT WHAT YOU DON’T INSPECT

Nehemiah 2:13-15

I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the kings pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned.

2 Corinthians 13:5

“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”

Psalm 147:3

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”