Praying to Nehemiah’s God
by John Sheeley
One of the great lessons I’ve learned in these past 5 decades of life is that sometimes we are going to end up in places and situations we never thought we’d be in or want to be in. However, the greater lesson I’ve learned in the decades since coming to know Christ as my Lord is that we are in a place and time for God’s purposes. I’m often taken back to the story of Nehemiah in the Old Testament when my life brings me to one of those unplanned stops as the Spirit reminds me of the undeniable fact the Lord is in charge and our lives are to be for his glory.
Nehemiah’s Story
In 586 BC, the Jews were conquered and taken into exile in Babylon (2 Kings 25), but in 539, Persia overthrew the Babylonian king and decreed the exiles were free to return home (Ezra 1). Nehemiah lived nearly 100 years after this decree, but he was still serving the Persian king Artaxerxes as cupbearer - a powerful position that had influence with the king. The book of Nehemiah opens with his discovery that the exiles who’ve returned to Jerusalem are suffering because the city’s walls and gates are still destroyed, leaving the city vulnerable and defenseless. This news causes Nehemiah to weep and mourn for days, fasting and praying to the God of heaven for help.
Sometimes our lives bring us to a place where all we can do is weep and mourn. Life happens, often without warning, and we find ourselves unable to know where to turn or how to understand what is happening. As the Apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, we can be “so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despair of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8). I imagine this might be how Nehemiah felt, separated from his people’s homeland, and burdened for their plight.
The gospel reminds us that these are not unusual situations for the human condition. Because the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, chose to disobey God, not trusting his will, all mankind suffers from the effects of sin. There is loneliness and grief, anxiety, depression, addiction, sickness, and brokenness in and all around us. Nehemiah, much like us today, was subject to the effects of sin on creation.
Nehemiah and Us
Nehemiah’s story provides a lesson for us beyond just giving us someone to relate to about the struggles of life. He gives us a striking example of just how we can respond to those overwhelming circumstances. Nehemiah remembered the promises God had given his people and realized he needed to reach out to God, “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” (Nehemiah 1:4) Nehemiah recognized his situation was hopeless without the work of the Lord of heaven.
Nehemiah was allowed, through the work of the Lord on the heart of the king, to travel to Jerusalem and help his people. God used Nehemiah to comfort others and confront the Lord’s enemies. While our situations may not lead to such dramatic events as we see in Nehemiah’s life, our calling to walk in faith and trust in God is no less than it was thousands of years ago.
I cannot begin to count how many times in my life where I and my family recognized how our own situations were hopeless without the work of our Creator and Redeemer. Whether it was during two very complicated pregnancies which resulted in our “miracle” children, struggles with illness, job changes, life events, or relationship challenges, we are constantly reminded of our need for the Lord’s promises, strength, and wisdom.
Nothing is Wasted
Because of the Lord’s work in our lives, we have been able to look back and see how he not only brought us through these trials but as with Nehemiah, he used these events in our lives to impact those around us. This is important for those of us who believe in the gospel to understand. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.” God has created us for more than ourselves. We can comfort others as we’ve been comforted, sharing our lives with others who may be struggling, lifting one another up as we move forward to the return of our Lord.
When we trust in the gospel and the good news of redemption through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see more clearly how God has us somewhere in life to accomplish a work for his purposes. When we are consumed by our circumstances and unable to see God’s good, gracious, sovereign hand at work, we add pain to our own suffering, miss out on the opportunity to glorify God to others, and sin in the process. This isn’t to say we ignore the trials of our lives nor are their impacts diminished, but we refuse to let them become the sole definition of who we are as people and what we are here to do.
The gospel shows us that our situations are not too small or insignificant for God to deal with. The Creator of the universe took on human flesh to rescue us and restore us to Himself. Nothing is too small or out of His reach. He is intimately involved in the lives of His creation, and He cares deeply for His people.
We often try to deal with our issues with a new program, habit, breaking of a habit, etc. Our first inclination may be to go to friends or other people who are just as messed up as we are. The gospel reminds us that we can go to our Savior first, the only one who is truly able to offer hope and help. The perfect, holy God who took on the sin of the world can take on your pain, guilt, and trials.
Like Nehemiah, we can reach out to the Lord in prayer, seeking his comfort and direction. Over 9 times in his book, which begins and ends with prayers of praise and petition, Nehemiah came before the Lord.
Nehemiah knew the goodness of God in part, but we know even more clearly on this side of the cross. Because of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, we can pray with confidence that we have a perfect intercessor before the throne of God. That we can come to Him in full confidence of His love for us. That despite our sinful nature, Christ’s righteousness enables us to have faith and lean on his mercy.
The gospel tells us we do not have some distant, far-off God, but an intimate, personal God who desires to comfort us and give us strength. Trust in him, trust in his work, lift your prayers and petitions before him, receiving his peace that goes beyond all human understanding.