Common practice for most personality types is to sit back and let things turnaround, while we do the same things we’ve been doing. If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will continue to get similar results. In fact, if your life, your church, or other organization is in decline, you are receiving less and less results each year and by continuing on the same path, you will see less results this year, even less next year, and less each ensuing year until you or the church (or organization) has worked itself into a hole that you cannot climb out of.
When the reality of your situation is presented and realized, it is important that you identify with the necessity of the situation. Did you notice an emphasis on a particular word in the last sentence? If a correction is to be made, you or church leaders first will need to identify with the necessity of the situation. Identifying the situation is not where the struggle begins. Identifying the situation should bring an uncomfortable and unsettling of our mind, heart, and soul. But the battle to turn around begins only when we identify with the necessity of the situation.
Realizing and stating, “Our church has lost thirty percent of our attending members in the last five years.” is identifying the situation. Identifying with the necessity of the situation will burden your heart, mind, and soul, driving you to your knees in prayer for repentance and redemption from your current situation. This remorseful spirit comes not from an emergency rescue effort to save your job or even your church. It will be as a result of a broken spirit upon realizing the neglect of appropriate elements and action to reach the community for Christ and carrying out the Great Commission.
The same is true with your personal life. Identifying the situation of your life does not bring about the needed and desired turnaround. Identifying with the necessity of your situation should drive you to change course in your turnaround journey.
The biblical book of Nehemiah renders a great study on Identifying with the needs of a detrimental situation. Nehemiah identified with the needs of the city of Jerusalem. He felt compassion for the people living there, for the rich heritage of the city of Jerusalem and for the God he and his forefathers served.
In life we more often identify the perceived needs of a certain ministry than we truly identify with the needs or the necessity of a situation. Nehemiah had never lived in or even visited Jerusalem. Yet, he identified with the necessity of the situation so much that he put his own life at risk to help lead the turnaround.
Nehemiah was about to take on a daunting task that was far beyond anything he had ever been part of. But he would accept the challenge without question because he was following the direction of God almighty. When you and I follow God as did Nehemiah, we do not see a challenge before us. We see our next act of obedient service to God. And God will provide and deliver.
The need is not about what has happened or about rebuilding the Past. The need is about finding your place and purpose in moving God’s kingdom work forward. Nehemiah says, “I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah set everything else aside and contemplated the matter. He fasted –went without food, and he prayed.
It has been said that one will never rebuild until he or she comes to the point of weeping over the ruins. When was the last time you wept over the current situation of your life, your church, or this nation?
