Prayer requests

As we study Nehemiah, I want to keep something in mind, and check it out as we go along. What? The fact that Nehemiah was a prayer warrior!

I expect we may have heard sermons on Nehemiah's two "major" prayers. The book starts with a prayer of confession and direction, in chapter one. We'll be focused on that chapter this week. It shows a picture of a man who was not ashamed to turn to God in prayer the very moment that things started looking "iffy."  Often I will try to fix a problem first -- then pray about it when my efforts don't give me the results I want. You do that too? (Sigh)
Nehemiah shows us in no uncertain terms that we should pray first, and then ask for God to direct our steps. Kinda the opposite of what we try sometimes.
Later on in the book of Nehemiah, we will see his other "major" prayer; it's one asking for courage and for vindication.
What I really have been impressed with, though, as I have studied, is that Nehemiah offers up a lot of short prayers throughout the book bearing his name. If you have time to scoot ahead and look, we will find a good many of them in chapters six and thirteen. Nehemiah can be seen to ask God for very specific things in these short prayers, and we will focus on them as we get to them.
For now, I guess the takeaway is that going to God in prayer doesn't always mean going to our "prayer closet," or quiet place of solitude. Nehemiah often would offer up a quick prayer as he faced an obstacle. Then he'd get to work.
So, he was strongly dependent on God to get things done that needed doing!

Lastly, we also see Nehemiah offering up silent prayers. An example is in chapter two:

The king said to me, “What is it you want?”Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king,  (Nehemiah 2:4-5a)

I may be wrong here, but I envision Nehemiah offering a quick, under the breath prayer which the Bible doesn't record. But it shows us again that he surrounds all that he does with prayer!  (He does this again in chapter 4.)

I think one reason I'm particularly excited to be studying Nehemiah is that it's unusual compared to other books of the Bible: it's one of the few extensive first person accounts in the Old Testament. I think we can learn a lot from this prayer warrior!

Lord, let us be more like Nehemiah!

I hope that if you have a prayer request today, you will leave a comment and let us know. It's a privilege to join other believers in prayer.