Nehemiah's prayer

    "The effective fervant prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. (James 5: 16b-18 NKJV)

      In the book of Nehemiah we find one of the most awesome prayers in the Bible. We don’t know too much about Nehemiah except that he was in captivity in Persia, the son of Hachaliah, that his name in Hebrew meant “Comfort of Yahweh”, and that he was the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of the Persian Empire. One of his fellow Hebrews had recently returned from Jerusalem and had told him how the walls were torn down and the people were in great distress. Nehemiah was greatly upset to hear this news, He wept bitterly, and mourned for several days, with fasting and praying.

    

    He cried out to God: “I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God. You who keep Your covenant and mercy to those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel which have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations: but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of heavens, yet I will gather you from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling place for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear your name: and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’ For I was the king’s cupbearer.” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)

What an awesome example for us to cry out to God with the same enthusiasm and sincerity that Nehemiah had in this heartfelt prayer! What has God put on your heart today? Do you have some of the same passion to petition God right now for the needs of your country, your  church, your family, and yourself right now? If so let us together bring these prayers before our Lord this day:

Pray that:

1.     God will bring into our remembrance the things we have done that we know we should not have done or we didn’t do that we know we should have done.

2.     We will be convicted of our sins of materialism, pride, indifference, laziness, impurity, lack of love, and selfishness.

3.     That God will forgive us as we are quick to forgive others who have sinned against us.

4.     Many will be faithful today in praying for the lost and for revival in our country in the coming weeks and months.