I spent time last week with a 93 year-old woman who shared stories about her life growing up in New York. Her father was a butcher and her family lived above his shop. She had 2 brothers and 1 sister and she fondly remembers family meals around the kitchen table. But what stands out to her most about that time is how her mother, a devout Catholic, would spend one hour every day in prayer. No matter how much there was to do raising 4 young children in the midst of the Great Depression and World War II, her mom lived by the adage that she was too busy not to pray.
If I’m being completely honest, I must confess that I struggle in my prayer life. Often I’m focused on all I have to get done and I leave little room for slowing down to pray. Often I’m not sure how to pray; there is so much going on in our world and in my life that I don’t even know where to begin. And then there are the times I doubt whether my prayers will really change anything—will God really act because I pray. Perhaps that is why I am drawn to Nehemiah’s prayer from this week’s Scripture reading.
The book of Nehemiah demonstrates how prayer is powerful and pleasing to God and it shows us how to approach prayer in our own lives:
1. His prayer invoked the character of God – Nehemiah’s prayer described and praised God at the same time (great and awesome God). It then made God’s character the foundation of God’s response to the prayer (the one who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love and obey him).
2. His prayer recalled God’s promises — Nehemiah reminded God of his promise that if his exiled people returned to him in obedience he would redeem them and bring them back to the Promised Land. I am beginning to see that remembering God’s promises is critical to answered prayer.
3. His prayer confessed the sins of himself and his nation – Nehemiah acknowledged his own guilt and admitted the sins of his people in not obeying God’s commands.
4. His prayer emphasized his great need – Nehemiah prayed out of a broken heart weeping for the troubles his people were experiencing. Aren’t our prayers most fervent when we pray with the sense of great need and anguish?
After Nehemiah prayed, he still had to step out in faith to bring his plan before the king. The king could have charged Nehemiah with divided loyalty, but instead he responded with whole-hearted favor. Nehemiah’s prayer unleashed all of God’s influence and molded the will of the king. Such an important lesson as we begin to understand that we are too busy not to pray!