Nehemiah's Prayer

Nehemiah 1:4-11 (ESV)

Nehemiah's Prayer

4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants,confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
Now I was cupbearer to the king.

I hope you will take the time to read Nehemiah's prayer carefully. I wonder if you will be as amazed as I was to see how this man so quickly got involved by inquiring, by praying, by confessing, and by volunteering to help. In the few verses prior to his prayer, Nehemiah asked a visitor how the Jews were faring who had escaped and survived the exile. As soon as he found out they were not doing well and the city wall had been destroyed, Nehemiah immediately wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed. Seriously? I'd have called a couple friends to say, "Have you heard how bad it is over in Jerusalem?" It might have been days before the Holy Spirit got my attention enough to remind me I should be praying for them. Hopefully, not days, but you understand what I mean...right? Or am I the only one? I don't know if my mourning, fasting, and praying matches up to my inquiring. And I'm sure my volunteering to get involved and help doesn't match up. Wow! I need to be much more like Nehemiah and not so much like....well...like me!
We are going to spend the next couple weeks going through Nehemiah's story together. Hang on with me and let's see how much we can learn from this enthusiastic man of God!