Nehemiah: a Man of Prayer

Nehemiah 1

Today we start the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is only 13 chapters long and records the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. 

Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king of Persia, king Artaxerxes.  This same king had just let the Israelites go back home after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  Jerusalem was in ruin. Nehemiah sees one of his brothers who just got back from Jerusalem and asks him about the remnant of Jewish people who survived the exile. He is shocked to hear that the city walls had been torn down and the gates had all been burned.  Nehemiah sat and wept. He mourned, fasted, and prayed before the Lord.

So Nehemiah was probably a very small child when the exile from Jerusalem had taken place 70 years earlier. He grew up in Babylon as did many Jews.  It should be noted that Ezra and Nehemiah both grew up in Babylon and they both still kept believing in the Lord and keeping his commandments. 

The book starts off with a prayer to God from Nehemiah for success and favor in the eyes of the king.  Nehemiah was very upset about Jerusalem and the poor state it was in and he was to asked to go rebuild it.  After the Lord gave him favor with the king of Persia, he traveled to go see Jerusalem for the first time since he was a very young boy. He probably did not even remember how it looked at all. For Nehemiah, it started with faith in the one true God and if you read his prayer, he took it from the books of the law that Moses had been given by the Lord himself.   He did not have the whole Bible like we do today, but the same truth he found in the books of the law drove him to pray and fast and rebuild the wall. 

Before you do anything today, stop, pray, and ask the Lord to reveal to you the broken pieces of your wall.  Then make plans to repair that wall with the truth provided in the Bible.  Nehemiah was bold because he knew the God he was serving and the stories he was taught as a young man about his ancestors that resonated in his heart. This gave him hope and faith in the Lord because the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If He had redeemed Israel in the past, He can do it again. Your life is never too far broken that Jesus cannot come and rebuild it.

Give me arrogance and I will see rebellion, give me pride and I will see a great fall, give me faith and I will see mountains move, give me belief and I will see cities rise from the ashes.  Give your best to the Lord today in prayer and don’t throw away his direction.