… let your ear be
attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now
pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants,
confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.
Even I and my father’s house have sinned.
THE STUDY:
In verse 6 we
read something that stood out to me, let
your ear be attentive and your eyes open. God does not have actual ears or
eyes. After looking into this a little more we find that Nehemiah uses these as
figures of speech to indicate he wanted Yahweh to answer his prayer.[1]
This makes sense when we look at verse 4 concerning prayer and fasting. Prayer
is a conversation with God, but fasting shows the passion and desire from the one praying for the
prayer to be acted upon.
For Nehemiah, this was the case. He
revealed to God his passion for something to be done by the act of fasting. Now the question on his mind
was but whether He was going to take action. One of the utterly astounding
characteristics of biblical psalms is that the psalmist never doubted that God
heard his prayer.
How great is God that he can pay
attention to each of our prayers, millions of them around the world,
individually and simultaneously! Not just hear them but take action in regard
to them as well. Our minds cannot comprehend it, but God is beyond our
comprehension.[2]
WHAT WE CAN WALK AWAY
WITH ….
- We walk away with the understanding that it is one thing to have faith that God hears our prayers but we also need to have faith that God will take action in regards to those prayers. He is not a God who ignores our prayers but a God who responds to those prayers. His response may not be to our desire or at the time in which we would have liked but there will be a response.
APPLICATION:
A few days
ago I had a friend who told me he was going to get a new car. I thought
to myself this was great but he had just finished tell me a few days ago how he
didn’t have any money. Therefore, I asked him how he could afford
it. My friend responded, “I can’t afford it, but I told God that I wanted
one.” Is this how prayer works? We tell God what we want Him to do for us
and He is committed to provided? Make no mistake God always answers the
prayers of the saints, but sometimes He answer is no.
Nehemiah’s
prayer was heard by and responded to accordingly by God. God reserves the right
to answer and act upon any of our prayers as He see fit. The things we can have
faith in are our prayers being heard, answered, and acted upon by God. How he does
it is entirely up to Him.
Do you have a
prayer today? One that is found deep down in your heart that can only be heard,
answered, and responded to by God? Have faith that God will do just that and
watch that prayer be answered. Blessings
Blessings my friends
Pastor Rod
[1]
Barry, J. D., Grigoni, M. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., &
Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study
Bible (Ne 1:6). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[2]
Breneman, M. (1993). Vol. 10: Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (electronic ed.).
The New American Commentary (172). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
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