Nehemiah #8 - A listened for request
When Nehemiah heard the bad news about Jerusalem and spent time fasting and praying, he had obviously been listening to God too. In this prayer that we have been working through (which is really a culmination of this process of prayer,) Nehemiah comes now to the ultimate focus of the prayer: There's a plan and Nehemiah needs help.Nehemiah ends with a very specific request that springs from the listening process that he embarked on with fasting and tears. As he spent those couple of days in God's presence, a Divine Plan was revealed to him. How do you rebuild the city walls? - Ask your boss (a pagan king who you work for as a cupbearer) to give you leave and pay for all the materials! Such a plan is almost too ridiculous to consider and yet this is what God revealed to Nehemiah and this is why he prays for the king's favour.
This is the razor-sharp focus of Nehemiah's prayer - a very specific request. The plan is so daring, so outrageous, that it could only have come from God's heart, and yet Nehemiah must pray for its success. This is the mystery of prayer: Very often we must pray for things that we know God wants to give us, but it is because God includes us in His work. There is a sense in which He limits Himself, giving us a key role to play.
When my son Caleb was younger, there were many things that I could do in the garden or workshop that would go quicker if I did them myself. If I asked a three year old Caleb to help me, the job took much longer, but for the quality of the relationship and his growth as a person, I shared my work with him.
God does the same for us. Prayer, therefore, is an act of praise, confession, and request. When we ask God for things in prayer, it is like Caleb passing me another nail for my woodwork project (The project can't continue until I got another nail) - we have become God's helpers.
And God loves to answer the prayers of His helpers.
| ...O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in revering Your name. Give Your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man. (I was the cupbearer for the king.) (Nehemiah1:11) |
