Pay Attention to What God is Putting on Your Heart

Scripture — Nehemiah 1:1-4 (NRSV)

The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capital, one of my brothers, Hanani, came with certain men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews that survived, those who had escaped the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They replied, “The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.” When I heard these words I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Devotion

I expect you’ve heard it said, especially to young adults, that we need to discover our passion in life and then do it. In his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said, “[The] only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” Jobs once told his employees at Apple, “We believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. That’s what we believe.”

There are certainly times when that about which we are passionate is also that to which we should devote our lives. For example, I love my children dearly and have been passionate about being their father for more than 30 years. My passion and purpose align here. But there are times when God puts on our hearts a concern, a conviction, a vision, or a person for which we are not intuitively passionate. Thus, clarifying our purpose involves more than discovering our inner passion. I suggest that it requires paying attention to what God is putting on our hearts, even when our hearts aren’t naturally inclined in that way.

A striking biblical example of purpose and paying attention comes from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. There, a man named Nehemiah illustrates wonderfully what it’s like to pay attention to what God is putting on your heart.

Early in chapter 1, Nehemiah asks about Judah and Jerusalem, which were decimated by Babylon in 587 BC. Surely, he already knew about this, not only as a faithful, exiled Jew, but also as a significant servant in the court of the Persian king. Yet, when he heard the report of great trouble, shame, wall broken, and gates destroyed, Nehemiah was deeply moved in an altogether new way. This could have been merely a human response. But it seems more likely that God was stirring in Nehemiah, putting the dire situation of the Jewish people on his heart.

What did Nehemiah do when this happened? At first, he “sat down and wept, and mourned for days,” during which time he was “fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (1:4). You can read his heartfelt prayer of repentance and supplication in verses 5 to 11 of chapter 1. The prayer ends with this request: “Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man!” (1:11).

“This man” was none other than King Artaxerxes, ruler of the Persian Empire. Why did Nehemiah need mercy and success in the sight of the king? Because Nehemiah, a valued servant of the king, was about to ask his boss, indeed, his king, for an extended leave of absence to oversee the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. If you’re familiar with the book of Nehemiah, you know that the king did indeed grant permission to Nehemiah, who did indeed succeed in his mission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. But in asking for the king’s permission Nehemiah was risking his position, perhaps even his life.

Nehemiah had a clear sense of purpose in life following the report of the broken-down walls of Jerusalem. Where did this purpose come from? The way Nehemiah tells his own story makes it clear that his purpose came as God put the sorry state of Jerusalem on his heart. There is no indication in the text that Nehemiah had a burning passion for the restoration of Jerusalem before the time when God stirred him up. He didn’t have some inborn passion for this work. Rather, his passion came from God.

As I have spoken with people about their purpose in life, I have often heard stories rather like that of Nehemiah. Sometimes people receive a powerful calling from God in a moment as Nehemiah did. Sometimes such a calling develops over many years. But people living with purpose will often say something like “God put this on my heart.”

I say something like this when I talk about the third third work I’m doing these days. (If you’re not familiar with it, check out the “Third Third Leaders” section of the De Pree Center website.) I’m spending more and more of my life focusing on helping people in the third third of life flourish for God’s purpose and glory. This work is central to my purpose in life. But that wasn’t always the case. When I began working at the De Pree Center, my purpose had everything to do with serving marketplace leaders. But, as I did this work, I began to hear from many of these leaders that they needed guidance on how to live well in retirement.

At first, I recognized the need but had no interest in being personally involved in this work. I did not have a hidden passion for third third work. But, in time, I began to sense that God was putting this work on my heart. I started to care more and more, not only about the work, but also about people in the third third of life. I was eager to help them flourish, which includes making a difference that matters in the world. I experienced a growing desire to equip churches for this work. Did my eagerness and desire originate inside of me? I don’t think so, not at all. Rather, God was slowly putting third third work on my heart, giving me a growing desire and clarity of purpose.

To sum up, the story of Nehemiah illustrates in a powerful way how our purpose in life can come when God puts something on our hearts. Often, by the way, this “something” is actually “someone” or “some people.” Like Nehemiah, we need to pay attention to what God is doing in us, through prayer, reflection, and (sometimes risky) action. Through paying attention to God’s work in us we can receive, clarify, and craft our purpose in life.

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide (Nehemiah 1:1-1:10) .