Dealing With Tough Times - Part 2
It is something that is so obvious when you read the story – yet I had never caught it before. God never answered prayer – at least it seems that way. My friend’s comment was true as we discussed the account of Nehemiah.
In the last posting on this Blog I had pointed to the fact that Nehemiah prayed when his back was against the wall. When his enemies were strongly against him – he prayed. When he was tired or his people/workers were threatened – he prayed. It seemed that no matter what he faced – he prayed.
My friend’s comment has made me think. Then it came to me… God did answer the way he always answers in my life – quietly.
Nehemiah is not Moses – that had open and recorded conversations with God. Nehemiah is not an Isaiah that hears from God and is told to tell his fellow country men what is going to happen. In fact Nehemiah is not like any other man that I read about in the Bible… he is Nehemiah. And God needs Nehemiah to be himself.
The one thing that the thought has led me to is the wonderful facts that are so plain as the story unfolds…
The huge question to ask is… “If Nehemiah had not prayed, what would have happened? If there had not been a Nehemiah – what then? If no one listened or worked together – what would be the outcome then?”
The answer is quite clear in my mind – more years of captivity, more ugly walls to look at and little hope for a future. Definitely the generation of Nehemiah would never have had a party and celebrated a completion of a wall.
I have come to a simple conclusion this week… There is nothing more exciting than answered prayer! AND – God always hears and answers prayer – I just may not be listening – or have recorded it for others to read or understand.
Every prayer is heard by a God that is so big you can’t miss him… and so powerful that there is nothing that He can’t do.
~ Pastor Murray ~
For your reading pleasure....
Isaiah 40
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
In the last posting on this Blog I had pointed to the fact that Nehemiah prayed when his back was against the wall. When his enemies were strongly against him – he prayed. When he was tired or his people/workers were threatened – he prayed. It seemed that no matter what he faced – he prayed.
My friend’s comment has made me think. Then it came to me… God did answer the way he always answers in my life – quietly.
Nehemiah is not Moses – that had open and recorded conversations with God. Nehemiah is not an Isaiah that hears from God and is told to tell his fellow country men what is going to happen. In fact Nehemiah is not like any other man that I read about in the Bible… he is Nehemiah. And God needs Nehemiah to be himself.
The one thing that the thought has led me to is the wonderful facts that are so plain as the story unfolds…
- The wall of the city was torn down and in terrible shape – it could not protect the people that lived and wanted to live there.
- The Temple that had been rebuilt was not protected – the city was vulnerable to its enemies.
- After prayer – the work begins.
- After prayer – the wall is half built.
- After prayer the workers are strengthened.
- After work salted and soaked in prayer – the wall and the gates are finished.
- The enemies before them that had destroyed the walls and the gates of Jerusalem meant it to be permanently destroyed – God had other ideas.
- After a life of prayer and hard work – the job was done… and they had a party that was so big and so loud that people heard about it from far away.
The huge question to ask is… “If Nehemiah had not prayed, what would have happened? If there had not been a Nehemiah – what then? If no one listened or worked together – what would be the outcome then?”
The answer is quite clear in my mind – more years of captivity, more ugly walls to look at and little hope for a future. Definitely the generation of Nehemiah would never have had a party and celebrated a completion of a wall.
I have come to a simple conclusion this week… There is nothing more exciting than answered prayer! AND – God always hears and answers prayer – I just may not be listening – or have recorded it for others to read or understand.
Every prayer is heard by a God that is so big you can’t miss him… and so powerful that there is nothing that He can’t do.
~ Pastor Murray ~
For your reading pleasure....
Isaiah 40
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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