1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Gifts of the Spirit, The final say | Page 8

the fact that we need to be continually vulnerable and yet vision driven. Let
the vision of God for your life, and for you exercising your gift within the
body of Christ, overwhelm your sense of vulnerability. If you do this, you
will be fine.
Prayer Thought: Won’t you take a moment to contemplate the
disappointment of Jesus with His disciples. So often they let Him down and
yet He loved them consistently. He never rejected them and He continually
built them up, despite the fact that they were so frail and fallible. Won’t you
pray into this example today and then seek to imitate the attitude of Christ.

Thursday
Nehemiah 1 v 4 – 11
The fourth, and possibly the greatest motivation to mobilise our gifts within
the contexts of the church, is found in the context of COMPASSION.
There is nothing more powerful to move people to action than a broken
heart. Nehemiah was one such person. Even though he personally had
never been to Jerusalem and he was certainly not to blame for the dilemma
that they faced there, we read that his heart was broken by what he had
heard and, in verse 4 of the reading above, it says that he sat down and
wept. It continues to say that for days he mourned and fasted and prayed
before the God of Heaven. Theprayer that follows is a magnificent example
of a prayer prayed from a standpoint of brokenness. He pleaded with God
for forgiveness for the people and he prayed that God would restore them
to their former glory. But Nehemiah was not satisfied with just praying, he
also came up with a plan. He approached the king, secured resources from
the king and then proceeded to Jerusalem to implement this plan. As I look
around the world today, I cannot help but see the devastation of mankind.
I have just come in from listening to the news and I read of the atrocities
taking place in Syria and Afghanistan and, I don’t know about you, but my
heart breaks over it. I come closer to home and I read of child abuse and
drug addiction, murder and rape in our own community and my heart
breaks. But a broken heart is not good enough without a plan. This is where
we as the body of Christ should be at our very best. God has put, within
this body,spiritually gifted people who, when they combine their energy
together, could make an incredible difference in our community. I, and the