Fifty-Two Days in Nehemiah (Day 3)

Day 3

O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Nehemiah 1:11

Nothing more clearly indicates our need for God’s grace and mercy than prayer. Obviously, this is something that Nehemiah understood. Throughout this book, Nehemiah returns again and again to prayer. He recognizes that if this project is going to be a success, it will be because of God’s hand leading and guiding.

Two aspects of this prayer give us guidance as to how to approach our own prayer life. First, we see Nehemiah’s request to be heard. Clearly, God does not turn a deaf ear to our prayers, but sometimes we need reminded that He is indeed listening. So, Nehemiah makes his request for God to hear. This request is rooted in the fact that he (Nehemiah) delights in and fears the name of God.

Second, Nehemiah expresses his dependence on God. As he requests success, he is acknowledging that he can do nothing of his own accord. It is God who must move on our behalf to do the impossible. As Nehemiah approaches the king, he asks God to grant him success.

As we approach the Lord in prayer, we must also remember that we are completely and totally dependent on Him. If we think that we can voice a quick prayer and then do things on our own, God will very likely let us test that assertion. However, if we go to prayer knowing that God is our only hope, He will certainly move on our behalf.

It is important to remember that our ability to approach God in prayer and His willingness to listen are all rooted in mercy. We have done nothing to deserve God’s grace and favor. God’s grace and mercy are always based on who He is, not in who we are.

Fifty-Two Days in Nehemiah (Day 2)

Day 2

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.

Nehemiah 1:4

There will be times in our lives when God speaks clearly, and it will require a response on our part. The call of God is not to be taken lightly, nor are we to rush into some endeavor without seeking His face. As we see in Nehemiah’s story, when God spoke, Nehemiah stopped to seek His face.

While Nehemiah simply says, “I wept and mourned for days…,” the date markers of chapter one and two tell us that four months elapsed. For four months Nehemiah sought the face of God through seasons of prayer and fasting. For four months Nehemiah waited for God to give him a clear plan as to how he should move forward. For four months Nehemiah waited on God to align all of the pieces. And, when it was time, Nehemiah acted.

We live in a day and age when we desperately need God to move. Our nation and our land have turned from God and seemingly have no thought of Him. If we want to see God do something fresh and exciting in our day, it is going to take a people who seek God as desperately as Nehemiah did.

So, let us take a lesson from Nehemiah. May our hearts be broken for our land. May we seek the face of God through prayer and fasting. And, may we take things beyond merely praying and be willing to move out in obedience as God speaks.

Nehemiah accomplished the impossible. He did in fifty-two days what others had not done in over one-hundred years. However, we know it was not Nehemiah, but God moving through him. We further know that God will do the same, in our time, for a people who humbly seek Him.

Fifty-Two Days in Nehemiah (Day 1)

Day 1

And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 1:2

God’s movement in our lives will often take place in the midst of the ordinary. In reading the book of Nehemiah, it seems that he asked a fairly anemic question. Basically, “How are things in Jerusalem?” Nehemiah had no idea that this simple question was going to radically change his life.

The answer to his question was that things were not good in Jerusalem. The wall that should have protected the city lie in ruins. The people were vulnerable to attack and had no way to protect themselves. It was Nehemiah that God would call to see that the wall was rebuilt. As we will see, this was no small task. However, with the Lord’s help, Nehemiah would get it done in an unbelievable short time.

We must recognize that God has set us apart for a specific reason, just as He did Nehemiah. There are things in our life that God has appointed us to that are going to be bigger than we can accomplish on our own. We will have to decide whether we, like Nehemiah, are willing to do what God has called us to do, or will we play it safe and miss our appointed destiny?

As we will see, Nehemiah did not take his call lightly. He approached it with fasting, prayer, and dependence upon the Lord. If we intend to see God use us in a powerful way, these disciplines will have to define our lives as well. We cannot approach life in a haphazard manner and expect that God will do something great with us. It is the life that is fully dependent upon Him that He will use for His purposes.