Nehemiah 1-2 An Awesome New Look At Prayer

My commentary brought out some wonderful wisdom based on these verses:

“For nearly a century, the Jewish remnant had been back in their own land, and Nehemiah could have joined them, but he chose to remain in the palace.  It turned out that God had a work for him to do there that he could not have accomplished elsewhere.  God put Nehemiah in Susa just as He had put Esther there a generation before, and just as He had put Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon.  When God wants to accomplish a work, He always prepares His workers and puts them in the right places at the right time.”

Nehemiah care enough to pray about the situation in Jerusalem, and my commentary said,” In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeed more miserably.  Nehemiah succeeded because he depended on God.”

“The greater part of Nehemiah’s prayer was devoted to confession of sin … He prayed for himself and the nation … He identified himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know.  It would have been easy to look back and blame his ancestors for the reproach of Jerusalem, but Nehemiah looked within and blamed himself.  ‘We have sinned.  We have dealt very corruptly.’”

“If God is going to answer prayer, He must start by working in the one doing the praying!  He works in us and through us to help us see our prayers answered … Real prayer keeps your heart and your head in balance so your burden doesn’t make you impatient to run ahead of the Lord and ruin everything.”

“When you wait on the Lord in prayer, you are not wasting your time; you are investing it.  God is preparing both you and your circumstances so that His purposes will be accomplished.  However, when the right time arrives for us to act by faith, we dare not delay.”

Father, thank You for showing me these new ways to see my prayer life.  Guide me to remember them and use them to come closer to You to get Your will done on earth – not my will done in heaven.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford