An Honest Prayer

As we continue our study in the beginning of the book of Nehemiah we come to Nehemiah’s prayer.  What a completely simple and honest prayer in which God’s servant lays out his heart before God!  As we think about the prayer of Nehemiah, I find several significant items in this prayer, and I believe they can serve as a model for our own prayer life.  I think that from Nehemiah’s prayer we can find six steps to Christ honoring prayers, and we can implement these facets into our own personal prayers.

Rehearse God’s Character

Nehemiah begins by rehearsing God’s character.  He does not lead with his request or petition, but he takes time to remind God of His own character as well as point his own heart towards the character of God.  Indeed, if Nehemiah’s requests were to be answered, it would only be by the character of God.  If his requests were denied, this again would ultimately come from God’s character.  Notice how he begins: Please, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps the covenant and faithfulness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. Nehemiah packs his prayer with theology as he reflects on what he knows about God!  He mentions that God is the God of heaven–thus God has the power to answer his prayers.  He points to God as great and awesome, trusting that God would do great and mighty things in Nehemiah’s situation.  He remembers that God is the faithful covenant keeping God, and Nehemiah uses this aspect of God’s character later in his prayer to call God to action based on His own character.

Do you use God’s character in your prayers?  Many times, we are so quick to get to our requests that we rush the process.  We go right to our petition, but we fail to take time to remember the God to whom we pray.  We forget that it is the very character of God that serves as the means by which our requests are granted.  When we pray, we need to take time to remember God’s character, for it is through God’s character that our petitions are granted!

Express Humility

Nehemiah continues in his prayer by expressing his own humility before the Sovereign Creator of the universe.  Before he ever gets to his requests, he takes time to make note that he knew his place.  He could never answer his own requests; he needed God to work.  He prays let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant.  Nehemiah recognized that he was a humble servant before the King of creation!  He did not come before God compelling God to answer his request, nor did he feel entitled to the response he desired from God.  He simply came to him seeking God’s favor on a humble servant.

We need to express humility before God.  Too often we feel entitled to the response we want when we pray.  We feel like we deserve to have our requests answered.  But prayer is more of a process than we would like to imagine.  Sometimes God does answer our requests right away.  But often we are told to wait.  When we get answers like this–answers that we do not want, we need humility.  Someone has said God is never late, seldom early, and always right on time. When we humble ourselves before God, we submit ourselves to His timetable, not our own, and we wait for what God will do and anticipate how He will work according to His sovereign pleasure!

Identify Your Request

Next, we see Nehemiah clearly and openly laying out his petition before the Lord.  In the New Testament we are told that we have boldness to come before God–Nehemiah expressed his prayers with boldness.  He did not hide his petition nor was he shy in bringing it before God.  He simply and succinctly laid it out before God, noting I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants.  What a joy it is to know that we can bring our requests before God, and all we must do is ask!  Nehemiah models for us how to ask, we simply need to identify our request before the Lord!

Be Open About Sin

Next, Nehemiah talked openly about sin.  He did not try to hide or excuse Israel’s sin.  He did not whitewash it or try to make it less severe.  Rather, he spoke honestly about it, saying 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.  There was no attempt to say, “we have not really been that bad”.  Nehemiah openly laid out Israel’s sin and confessed it before God.  Notice also that he included himself in that sin–we have acted very corruptly against You.  Nehemiah did not “pass the buck” or “play the blame game.”  He took responsibility for his sin, and Israel’s sin, and brought it before the Lord with a heart of repentance.

What a lesson this is for us!  We need to be willing to confess our sin!  We need to talk openly and honestly about our sin before the Lord and run to Him in repentance for cleansing and forgiveness!  True Biblical confession is kind of a lost art today.  Nehemiah reminds us of the necessity of bringing our sins before God in repentance and faith!

Remind God of His Promises

We also see Nehemiah reminding God of His promises.  Of course, we know that God does not need to be reminded.  This was more for Nehemiah than for God, but notice the dialogue.  God desires to dialogue with His creatures–He wants a relationship with His creation!  When we come to Him in prayer, He wants to build a relationship with us.  We see Nehemiah working on this relationship as he dialogued with God–“God, remember what you said!”  He recalls how God promised to gather His people if they returned to Him.  So many times in the Scriptures we find that prayer is a back and forth dialogue with God, and we see that in the example of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah dialogued with God as he pointed to God’s promises and asked God to keep them.  This in turn, strenghened Nehemiah’s trust in God!

Do you pray this way?  When was the last time you brought one of God’s promises before His throne?  James 4 reminds us that we have not because we ask not; when you pray to God, do you ask based on His promises?  Nehemiah leaves us a wonderful example of how to use what God has said to us in His Word to dialogue with God as we bring our petitions before Him!

Petition God to Hear

The last aspect of Nehemiah’s prayer is his final petition–he closes by entreating God to hear.  God does promise to hear His children, providing there are no sins we are clinging to.  But Nehemiah closes his prayer with the simple plea for God to hear his case–Please, Lord, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and please make Your servant successful today and grant him mercy before this man.  In his final plea, he recaps his petition and asks that God would pay attention to His servant.  Nehemiah cries out to God, expressing his sorrow and the pain of his burden, and commits his matter to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Final Thoughts

We can learn a lot from the prayer of Nehemiah.  We can learn how to bring our requests before God–specifically our laments.  I am not sure if this prayer is technically classified as a lament, but I like to think of it as such.  As Nehemiah is mourning and grieving the situation in Israel, he pleads his case before the Lord and asks God to work.  Is this how you pray?  Too often our prayers are far too quick, shallow, and thoughtless.  Do you really take time to plead your case before the King of Kings?  Nehemiah took great care and effort to do this, and so should we!  If churches are to move forward in their service and work for the Lord, they need more Nehemiah’s in their midst.  They need people who are going to give focus and intention to prayer.  They need people who are going to remember God’s character and call God to act based on this character.  They need people who are going to boldly make their petition before the Lord, dialogue with Him about their requests, and call on Him to do a work that only He can do!  Will you be “the Nehemiah” in the midst of your church who labors in prayer before our Sovereign God?