Nehemiah #2: Breakthrough prayer
We continue to journey with Nehemiah who has been wrestling with the predicament of Jerusalem after the exiles had returned. His wrestling led to prayer and his prayer continues to the end of the first chapter of the book of Nehemiah. This prayer leads to significant breakthrough and action. What I want to emphasize today is that Nehemiah didn't just get the bad news and pray the prayer we have here in chapter one. The prayer we have here is the culmination of a process of prayer.There are times that we will pray about things for a long time. In some cases this is because there are issues we have to sort out. As we will see, Nehemiah was going to become the answer to his own prayer. He was going to have to go out on a limb of faith and take a risk. The period of time spent in prayer is not because God is deaf or slow to move, but because, more often than not, prayer involves the transformation of our own hearts. Nehemiah's process of prayer and fasting which stretched over a couple of days was as much a time of reflection and clarification as an act of devotion.
Sometimes God does ask us to prevail in prayer. Daniel had this experience when the answer to his prayer was delayed due to spiritual opposition. There are times that we get to play an important role in persevering in prayer.
It's not always easy to understand why God delays answers, but there is a real possibility that as time goes by that our prayer, like Nehemiah's, will change from : "Lord would you hurry up and do something!" to "Here I am Lord, send me."
Breakthrough prayer is not just endlessly repeating the same prayer day by day, but a real soul-seeking prayerful reflective process in which we try to understand the problem and the possible solutions and what God might be asking us to do. It's all about listening prayerfully even more than we speak in prayer.
As Nehemiah did, we will at some point reach the breakthrough and be able to bring the prayer to a conclusion and act according to what God has revealed to us.
| When I heard these things I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said... (Nehemiah1:4-5) |
