T-73 - Be Yielded, Prayerful and Sacrificial

Last night I had the opportunity to deliver a message against worry based on Matthew 6:25-34. As usual, that message was as much for me as it was for anyone else. It occurs to me that as I study Nehemiah during my daily devotionals I am reading the life of a man who knew the weight of a righteous burden but did not worry. That is a characteristic that I sorely need to develop in my own life so I have been searching for the ‘secret’ to a worry-free life. In today’s text, I believe I have been given a glimpse into Nehemiah’s secret.

Consider with me this passage…Nehemiah 2:4-5 (NIV)
4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?”
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”
[1]

Did you notice? Or did you like me run right past it and focus on the content of Nehemiah’s statement to the king. Go back and read it again. Note that the king asked a question of Nehemiah. Note also that before Nehemiah gave his answer, he paused. And in that single still moment he breathed a prayer to God. Could that be part of the secret which I seek to uncover? I believe it is and in this small sentence fragment, I see two important indicators that I share with you now.

The first indicator is that Nehemiah is a man fully yielded to God. I say this based as much on what he didn’t say as on what he did say. What he didn’t say is “I thought for a moment” or “I considered what to say” or “I steeled myself to answer.” Nehemiah gave no consideration to himself at all. He did not look to reason or knowledge or tradition. He did not lean on his own understanding nor expectations. He didn’t choose his words carefully or gather any materials to support his position. He didn’t do any of the things that you and I might be inclined to do when faced with a similar situation. Instead he rested and relied on his faith in a god of providence and of grace. This could only be proof positive that Nehemiah was a man of God and a man fully yielded to God in humble submission. If there is one lesson that I need, this has to be it; how to be a man that is fully yielded to God and who lives by faith in all matters.

The second matter is that in a time of great stress and imminent danger, Nehemiah resorted to prayer. He did not run to superior logic or the power of reason; he reached out and plucked the power of prayer. He did not resort to oratorical device or superlative language; he resorted to prayer. He did not physically prostrate himself, bow his head, close his eyes or in any other way practice any sort of ritual; he simply prayed to the God of heaven. I envision his prayer as a dart; flying swiftly up to heaven where it landed at the feet of God. And just as swiftly, I see God dispatching an answer to Nehemiah. Very simply, it is the manifest power of prayer.

Now as simple as that seems I must acknowledge that Nehemiah did not offer only that ‘breath prayer’ to God. I believe the effectiveness of his ‘breath prayer’ was predicated upon a rich prayer life which had already paved the way for open communication between God and Nehemiah. I offer this observation because in Nehemiah 1:4-5 we have a record that Nehemiah, upon learning the state of his brethren in Jerusalem had mourned and fasted and prayed for some days. And after his period of mourning, fasting and prayer, he prayed a prayer of finality and turned the matter over to God. In that prayer, Nehemiah laid the groundwork for his ‘breath prayer.’ So while God hears all prayers, I believe the ‘prayer in an instant’ is most effective when accompanied by a full and fervent prayer life. Further, I believe this is borne out in scripture and specifically in the example of Jesus Christ.

Now if yieldedness is the posture, prayer must be the practice. Therein must be the secret of a worry-free life.

I could stop right here and feel like I had eaten a banquet. But in this passage there is one more thing that I just have to squeeze out of the text. It is the nature of the request made by Nehemiah to King Artaxerxes. It is the fruit of the prayer and a testament to Nehemiah’s yieldedness. He said “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

In that request is a noble sentiment but more importantly is the revelation that Nehemiah was asking to make a sacrifice of his own life. You must remember that Nehemiah was rich and powerful. He lived a comfortable life in the service of the king, had access to powerful people and got invited to all the good parties. In the same way that Nehemiah had the ear of God by way of prayer, he also had the ear of the king by way of the cup. I believe that at the time, it was an enviable position. But Nehemiah asked to give all that away so that he could travel to a distant city and undertake what could only be described as a gargantuan task. He asked to be allowed to rebuild Jerusalem. Now in case you don’t have an immediate appreciation for the size of that job, I want you to consider New Orleans. Years have passed since it was wrecked by a hurricane and its’ walls were breached by a flood. And even though we live in the richest country in the world, that city remains in tatters. Now consider if it were you seeking to rebuild that city. If an entire nation cannot rebuild New Orleans, how in the world could one man, Nehemiah, go about rebuilding the city of Jerusalem? How in the world, indeed. He couldn’t. But his strength and motivation were not in the world, they were from out of this world. He wasn’t Nehemiah going to rebuild Jerusalem, it was Nehemiah AND God. Suddenly, that task is not quite so large, is it? Evenso, Nehemiah was pouring out his own life that his fathers and his God might be honored and glorified.

I don’t know about you but my day just got put into perspective.

Warm Regards,
Carl 'Chief Running Water' Schultz
Read My Blog!
[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.