Then I said, “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’ “The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.[Nehemiah 1.5-11]
As with so many others' in the Bible who prayed, Nehemiah's prayer here reveals an import pattern in prayer for us today.
First, Nehemiah acknowledges and praises God for Who He Is. He declares his understanding that God is faithful to His Word and to those who are faithful to Him.
God has never changed, therefore, those today who would approach God must see Nehemiah's example as valid and follow it.
Next, Nehemiah declares that he is in fact, praying, but also he declares who he is praying for. He is praying for his people, Israel.
It is no different for us today. Again, because God has never changed, His focus is always on people. So our focus should always be on people if we are to reflect God at all. If the focus of our prayers is not tied to people, then perhaps a serious review should be made of our intentions!
Then, Nehemiah resorts to repentance. He does so reciting the fact that God is just in His punishment, but also reminds God that He promised to forgive the repentant. Nehemiah is very factual and frank in this part of his prayer. He repents for his people and for himself.
Here is where modern Christianity falls miserably short. I use the word "miserably" because there exists no other condition for those outside of God's good pleasure (under a curse). So many today are experiencing curses "en masse" but failing to trace the curses to disobedience, and, therefore necessarily repenting.
It is worth addressing here the "age of grace" as some call it - the claim is that Jesus redeemed us from the curses of the Old Testament. But, there remains but one question for those who claim, "grace:" why do they remain subject to the curses of Deuteronomy 28 if Jesus "paid it all?" There is a huge disconnect! If people are redeemed from the curses for disobedience, then all should be "blessings" on their lives! If not, well, something must be decided! The problem with "grace" is that it still requires something - not the blood of bulls and goats, but faith in the One Who freely gave His own blood. If faith is not applied, then the curses remain! To deny that curses are curses is ludicrous! And yet, that is exactly what the modern Church culture has largely adopted as truth. Consequently, the message and the practice of repentance is rarely mentioned while curses abound. In short, this failure by the modern Church must change.
And finally, Nehemiah makes his specific request to God. He asked for favor with the king so that he might gain permission and be successful in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.
As we pray, so should our prayer be specific when there are specific needs. There is certainly a need for 'general' prayers by God's people, but we have more examples of specific prayer in the Bible than otherwise.
Nehemiah's prayer offers much for us to learn if we will. It would be worth comparing Nehemiah's prayer here to he model prayer Jesus taught His disciples to follow in Matthew 6.
Father, help us - help me - to learn from Nehemiah's prayer how to pray effectively from the perspective of my own life.
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