Nehemiah’s Prayer

O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.

I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, `If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’

They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.

O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.”

Nehemiah, after hearing of the struggle of those who had escaped captivity and were in Jerusalem in a city that was broken and in ruins, wept bitterly and mourned for days.  He fasted and prayed and constantly came before God.  His prayer is an example that we may want to consider.  There are many elements similar to the prayer Jesus taught.

 

 

Great and Awesome God – He acknowledged the greatness and magnificence of God.  He identified who God is in all His glory.

 

Keeps Covenant and steadfast love – He acknowledged what God does and His character.  God keeps His promises and always loves.

 

Let Your Ear be Attentive – He asked God to hear him as he prayed.  Is this part of His prayer necessary?  God is already listening and attentive to those who love Him.  But this may be a request to express from the heart of the pray-er how important this is.

 

Night and Day – Nehemiah did not simply offer up one prayer and then move on to other things.  This was a prayer he would be persistent in and not let go.  This is much like the parable of the women seeking justice from the judge who did not fear God.  If it is important we will continue to lift up the prayer day and night.  When we lie awake in the middle of the night our heart will turn to prayer.

 

I have sinned – Nehemiah confessed to God how badly he offended and let Him down.    He confessed for His people and himself.  This is important to acknowledge that we are not deserving or righteous on our own but in great need for forgiveness.

 

Remember the Word – Nehemiah reminds God of what He has said and promised through Moses.  Was this necessary?  I think this serves as a reminder more for the pray-er of who God is and what He has said and promised than a reminder to a forgetful God.  It is a good thing to speak forth what God has promised for it will increase our own faith.

 

Give Success and Grant Mercy in this Matter – This is the request and it comes at the close of the prayer.  Our needs should be placed secondary to God’s will always.  Nehemiah placed this after the praise of God for who He is and what He does.  But yet I believe this prayer was stirred within His soul by God Himself.  This prayer was already in God’s good and kind will.  Nehemiah’s humility and desire to seek after and please God enabled Him to see with vision the plight of God’s people and the will of God towards their restoration.

 

And Jesus taught:

 

“This, then, is how you should pray: “`Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. ‘

There is great joy and blessing in prayer.  Let’s keep drawing closer.

 

Scott for Wellspring Copyright 2008

Prayer is Absurd?

“Naturally, prayer is not practical, it is absurd; we have to realize that prayer is stupid from the ordinary common-sense point of view.”  Oswald Chambers

Many probably have this view of prayer, that is, until life becomes difficult or we are faced with a sudden, significant crisis.  Chambers in the above quote from his devotional classic My Utmost for His Highest is pointing out the worldly view of prayer.  To the worldly, prayer is absurd.  And unfortunately the believer can stumble into this thought process as well.

Chambers goes on to explain what prayer is for the believer.  “‘Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.’ Then why ask? The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God.”  And further “Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our ordinary views on prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves. The Bible idea of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself. “

I believe this is the essence of prayer.  It is to get to know God.  It is to be with God.  The Bible speaks of a prayer life that is unceasing (I Thes. 5:17) , that is devoted (Col. 4:2), with joy (Phil 1:4) and in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18).  But how do we do those things?  My mind gets pretty occupied on things.  If I could borrow again from Oswald Chamber, he says, “If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly….Prayer is not an exercise, it is life.” 

Prayer more than any other discipline is to be more of who we are than what we do.  It is the most basic and most direct way into the holy of holies, the heart of God.  Life without prayer is life without God.  So, these are the things I would suggest to deepen your prayer life:

• Make your life an offering to God and a confession of your need for Him.  Do not think of prayer as a few minutes here and there but that your entire life is a prayer to Him.  As Brother Lawrence said, practice the presence of the Lord.
• Do make time to quiet your heart to listen, to be still, that you may be able to discern His voice. Sit with the scriptures daily and listen.
• This is not contrary to the first point, but do make specific times, appointments with God each day to share your heart, to intercede for others, to pray for the body of Christ.  Decide now the times during the day you choose and even set your alarm.

Prayer is such an expansive topic and this just scratches the surface (just as I am just barely scratching the surface in prayer), but lets be diligent and not lose heart in this endeavor.  The real absurdity is living life without prayer.

Blessings, Scott for Wellpsring Copyright 2008

 

Pray your own Prayers

 

When a brother asked Abba Antony to pray for him, the old man replied, “Try to pray your own prayers”.Excerpt from By Way of the Desert, 365 Daily Readings.  

The wisdom of the desert fathers and mothers is often right to the point and more often stated with very few words.  The answer to the above question may seem to be an abrupt and rude response to a request for prayer.  No one I know would answer me in that way (I don’t think) and I certainly would not be inclined to say to my brother in need “go and pray your own prayers, brother!”.   But I think there is something much deeper here that warrants careful thought.  

Are we people of prayer?  Would we rather have someone else pray for us and for our well-being than to do the work of prayer ourselves?  

I think these are the real questions that Abba Antony’s response is aimed at.  I think we in the culture in which we live are in danger of losing our passion for prayer (if we ever had it).  We seem to be attracted to the big mega churches with their polished services that entertain, we plug into pre-packaged programs for ministry that guarantee success, we send our kids to other people to teach them, we are fine with 20% doing 80% of the work in the church though once in awhile we will do a little service project because it makes us feel better, we like to hear messages that are always affirming and don’t require too much of us and most of all we are all too busy to pray.  Having the pastor say a little prayer somewhere in the service is good enough and in emergencies we will ask someone else to pray for us.  

Unfortunately all of us who have fallen into this type of “Christian” life eventually discover it is powerless and ineffective.  Before long we begin to discover we really don’t have a clue who God is and how He could ever interact in our lives.  Prayer simply becomes a moment for saying to God thanks for the grub and maybe, before we turn it over to the professionals or serious Jesus people, we will say the occasional, “O God I am in big trouble here…a little help…where are You”?   

However, prayer is one of the most important formational aspects of the Christian’s walk…this journey to be conformed into the image of Christ.  Prayer is not only speaking to God, but listening.   Prayer is coming to God and waiting and listening and regularly saying “Have mercy on me a sinner”…”Search my heart, O Lord”…”Show me your ways”.  Prayer can fill our hearts full with grace when we come with the primary goal to Know God and His magnificence rather than to tell Him how good and righteous we are and that we should be rewarded accordingly.  

This is what I would like to encourage all desiring to know God to do, to commit to pray your own prayers, often and regularly.  Commit to get to know God in a personal and intimate way.  Breathe in scripture (God’s word to you) and breathe out your praise, petitions, intercessions, confessions, love.  Spend a few minutes each day in silence before Him and ask that He quiet your heart so that through your heart you could begin to hear that still, small voice.  Spend some time each day praying for someone besides your self.  Spend some time praying the prayer of adoration.  Find a short breath prayer that you can lift up to Him constantly.  Mine is “Jesus, I need You!”  Yours may be Lord have mercy, Lord you are good, Jesus, I just want to know you…Teach your kids how to pray, ask a mature and thoughtful believer how they pray, search the scriptures for how the people of God pray…and finally take the book of psalms and pray these often.  

Just pray your own prayers.  Its good to seek your brothers and sisters for support and their intercession, but what we really need to do is meet with God personally.  We don’t need a go between to speak to our God.  Jesus paid that price for you and me to be able to enter into His throne room.  

Just pray, your own prayers. 

For Wellspring, © Scott 2008