7/27/2011 7:52:27 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: He cared enough to pray
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Nehemiah 1:5-10
Message of the verses: “5 ¶ I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6 let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 "We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8 "Remember the word which 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 those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10 "They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.”
One of the reasons that I use Dr. Wiersbe’s “Be” books to aid me in my study of God’s word is that he can make some of the difficult things of the Bible come alive, but he can also see passages that I would probably read and get little out of and make them too come alive. There is another reason and that is I like some of the sayings that he comes up with and some of the sayings that others have said and he quotes. Today’s SD begins with two of those quotes. The first is by a Scottish novelist Gorge MacDonald and he said “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeeded more miserably.” The next quote is by a man named Alan Redpath and he said “There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.” I find this true in my life on certain occasions because I have always been a man, who has been in a hurry, but it is great for me that I married a woman who takes her time and I have learned from her even though at times it has been hard for me to learn.
There are twelve instances of prayer recorded in the book of Nehemiah, for he was a praying man, and this is the first. The book begins with and ends with prayer. Nehemiah was a man who did well what God had planned for him to do and because his faith and prayer life he succeeded in what God called for him to do.
When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray He began with praise to His heavenly Father, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and Nehemiah uses the term “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God.” Ezra used this title four times and it is also found four times in Nehemiah, while Daniel used it three times. This is how all of God’s children should begin their prayers.
Nehemiah was experiencing great affliction and was about to do a great work and so he needed the power of the great God of heaven, the God who spoke and created the heavens and the earth, the seas and dry lands, the fish in the sea and the animals on the land, and He also created man from the dust of the earth and woman from the rib of the man. Why would we pray to another? Dr. Wiersbe asks “Is the God you worship big enough to handle the challenges that you face?”
Nehemiah then begins to quote part of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel, and this is something that both Ezra and Daniel did in their prayers to the Lord. It is certain that the Lord remembers the Words that He has written, but it is important to pray Scripture back to the Lord, of this importance I am learn more about each day.
Nehemiah was a man like Ezra who knew the OT Scriptures and this is a great example for every believer to follow, for the Scripture is the very Word of God that He has given to His children. Those who do not know the Lord will not be able to understand the Word of God for it was written to believers. Through his knowledge of the Word of God Nehemiah knew that the children of Israel had sinned and that is why they became exiles and were living in Babylon under Persian rule. Some of the exiles had moved back to Jerusalem, and this was part of what the Lord had promised in His Word. Nehemiah now learns of some of the disturbing things that were going on in Jerusalem and this drives him to his knees in prayer confessing the sins of Israel and like Ezra and Daniel he includes himself in those sins. He was identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know. Nehemiah did not use the words “they sinned” and that is why we are in this fix. I have heard it said that it is better to fact find than fault find. In the movie Apollo 13 man in charge told his crew, when they learned of this great problem they had to “work the problem.” I believe that fact finding and working the problem are good things to do otherwise we could be fault finding and not working the problem and then nothing will get accomplished. Nehemiah was fact finding and he was working the problem by talking to the God of Heaven.
One thing you can see in the prayer from Nehemiah is that he was confident. He had confidence in the power of his God. I believe that his confidence in his God came from the Word of his God. Nehemiah had a desire to go and to rebuild Jerusalem and he knew that he did not have the strength to do it, but he knew that his God had the strength to accomplish this through him. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
Nehemiah was confident that his God would raise up others to help to do this work, for he was unlike Elijah who though that he was the only one to accomplish something for the Lord. Nehemiah was also confident that the Lord would work in the heart of Artaxerxes to allow him to go to Jerusalem to begin this work.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “To often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them; but Nehemiah didn’t make that mistake. He sat down and wept (Neh. 1:4), knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he was doing.” Great example for all of God’s children to follow!
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Following this great example of Nehemiah’s prayer is something that has been enlightening to me as I studied this passage. Waiting is something that I have never been good at, but something that I am learning. The saying “don’t put the cart before the horse” is a good example to follow when doing the work of the Lord, for I am to follow the Lord and not get into a hurry and go before him. That is something that Saul did and it got him in a lot of trouble.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. I believe that learning contentment is similar to learning patience. Both of them can bring things into my life that will cause me to have contentment and be patience.
2. Wait upon the Lord.
7/27/2011 8:57:16 AM
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