PRAY FOR YOU

• DAY 205
• FAITH FILE: NEHEMIAH
• SCRIPTURES: NEHEMIAH 6:1-2, 9

Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall, and that there were no breaks left in it (though at that time I had not hung the doors in the gates), that Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they thought to do me harm. For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will not be done.” Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.

I have noticed a pattern while writing this devotional – a person of faith is chosen by God, sent on an assignment, and just before they know what’s going on, they acquire enemies who come against them and try to frighten them away from the work of God and stand against what God has sent them to do, and these enemies are relentless. But as people of courage, they persist, they pray, and they trust God throughout the process. Eventually, they come out victorious. I believe these are recorded as evidence and encouragement for us. So that many of us that read the Word can find ourselves in the stories, and that becomes evidence for our faith. We see this pattern throughout the Bible, and we see that in Nehemiah as well. And one more thing people of courage do is pray for themselves too.

You see, we find it easy to pray about projects, enemies, assignments, experiences, worries, and challenges, but we often forget to pray about our hearts and our response to these challenges that befall us. Yet we ought to do so. Because 9 out of 10 times the problem is not as big as our reaction to it. Fear tends to exaggerate its impact and weight and make us react irrationally, as well as put us in a perpetual state of torment. So when we present our anxieties to God in prayer, He first gives us peace (Phil 4:6-7). He settles our hearts first.

You First

There are issues that God will not change even though He can because it is necessary. Nehemiah’s oppositions were necessary, they served a purpose. They were there so that the miracle will be greater, they were the witnesses of the table that God will prepare before Nehemiah. God cannot remove them so Nehemiah will need the ability to survive them. Hence the prayer for strength.

Beloved, your heart can be weakened by experiences. One challenge after another and resilience is tested. The arrows and the weapons the enemy is throwing, it can overwhelm and it can begin to tell at you. We saw in our study yesterday that at one point they had the capacity to work, but as they progressed, they their hearts began to fail. So, you can’t focus only on praying about your enemy or praying about the success of what it is that you’re going to do alone. You have to pray for yourself that you will not lose heart, that what they are doing will not get to you. You need to pay equal attention to the state of your heart and the state of the problem. Prayer refreshes your heart and changes your perception and reaction.

Can you pray for yourself today? Can you ask God to give you strength? Pray it right now. Tell Him, “I want to have the ability and the capacity to do what it is that you have called me to do. I want to be able to do it and do it well. I want to be able to do it and do it effectively. I don’t want to be weary in what it is that you’ve called me to do. Let me have the capacity to withstand and succeed.” In Jesus’ name, amen.

Shalom