I asked Nehemiah how it was possible to pray the same thing for four months. And how he could not eat for all that time.

“I know, right?” he said. “I’m working in the palace, great meals, and I’m the wine steward!”

“Even after Daniel’s healthy eating experiment, there was plenty of food we could eat. [NOTE: Nehemiah was talking about a vegetable and water eating plan Daniel used at the beginning of the exile that Nehemiah came at the end of. You can read about it in Daniel 1.] But I knew that fasting was something done in times of serious approach to God. And I was serious.

“In my grief, I started looking at the prophets, the people who had written about the exile. And I found words from Isaiah that gave me hope, words from a hundred years before me. Isaiah wrote, ‘Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.’ (Isaiah 58:12.)

“That was exactly what I wanted to do. But what would it take? I read the context of the prophecy, what comes immediately before the promise.

“Isaiah talked about the kind of fasting that God wanted. (Isaiah 58:5-14) It’s fasting that shares meals with people who need the food rather than just not eating. It’s a life of justice, of being a leader who cares for people, of looking for underdogs and helping them. It’s a life of spending yourself on behalf of the hungry.

“It changed everything I thought about how to pray and how to follow God and how to lead. I spent four months letting that work into my life.”

Nehemiah stopped to let Isaiah’s words work their way into my thinking.

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More on Thursday.

Reflecting on Nehemiah 1. Taken from A Great Work: A Conversation with Nehemiah for People (Who Want to Be) Doing Great Works.