Spiritual Growth - Part I - A Prayerful Life

Introduction

Over the past two years I have read a large number of Christian books – mostly Charismatic books by authors such as Dutch Sheets, Cindy Jacobs, Rick Joyner, and John Bevere. Lately, I have had a lot of time on my hands, so I’ve been frequenting many of the book stores in my area looking for more stuff to read. The other day, as I was standing in the Christian book section of a popular book store chain, a couple of things dawned on me. It occurred to me that while many of these books are really great, that a.) They are NOT the Word of God as recorded in the Bible and thus they do not feed me that way that the Bible does, and b.) The time I spend going around from book store to book store could be better spent in prayer. I’m starting to think, why not use that time to pray for another brother or sister. Perhaps I’m greedy, but I have wished on numerous occasions that someone had been out there praying a little extra for me. I know I’ve needed it at times! And I’m sure that my fellow brothers and sisters need it as well. Heck, given what I see going on around me in terms of crime and sin, I’m sure my city, state and country need my prayers too. And not to mention, our solders who are over seas and their families.

I also started to think about how these authors were actually able to write such great books. Well, many of them spend lots of time in prayer. They even say that in their own books. Indeed, many of the people that we read about in the Bible such as Jesus, the apostles in the New Testament, Daniel, and Nehemiah had lives very much devoted to prayer. And from what is recorded in the Bible about these people, they’re prayer lives consisted of much more than the “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to take ..” kind of prayer that we pray in the two minutes before going to bed. Many of these lives were spent in regular, daily prayer time with the Lord. These Biblical heroes did not seem to be obsessed with praying over their personal situations (as you and I sometimes are), but they took on a burden for their friends or fellow country men. In thinking about this, I started to feel drawn towards taking my own prayer time and dedication of being Christian more seriously. I realize that I have a need to draw close to God; and not only do I NEED to draw close to Him, I actually WANT to draw close to Him. However, I often find it hard to set aside time to read the Bible or to sit down and pray. Ironically, I often do not even want to do those things. And so I am double minded and my prayer life suffers because of it. And through this I see that that Bible is true when it says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh (Galatians 5:17).

In my two short years of being a Christian, I have found that my prayer life and actually my entire ability to live life as a Christian are tied to three things: amount of time spent in QUALITY prayer, time spent reading the Bible, and Christian fellowship. I find that I actually need to connect with God on a regular basis in order to be able to live a Christian life. I would even go so as far to say that I CANNOT live a Christian life if I do not get hooked into God’s power on a regular basis.

Over the last year, I have grown much in the time and effort spent reading and studying the Bible and I can testify that it has helped me tremendously. I believe that by reading the Bible, a place in my mind, heart, or spirit is filled that cannot be filled any other way. In part two of this article, I will be addressing the issue of readying and studying the Bible in regards to becoming a healthier Christian. In this first part of this article, I will be addressing the issue of prayer: specifically having a prayerful life. The characters that I have illustrated below go much further in their lives of serving God than simply praying. These men and women serve God through works based on their faith. They have character traits such as humility, steadfastness of heart, faith, love for others, and endurance that is also mentioned in the scriptures that I have outlined. However, it is my assertion here that these people were able to perform their heroic exploits by starting with a diligent prayer life. And if they can do it, so can you and me!

Thoughts About Prayer

Before I get in to the character study of our Bible heroes and their prayer life, let’s address what the Bible says about prayerfulness:

• Mark 14:38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly [is] ready, but the flesh [is] weak.


• John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.


• John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.


• John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.


• John 4:23 - 24 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 24 God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.


• Pslam 147:1 Praise ye the LORD: for [it is] good to sing praises unto our God; for [it is] pleasant; [and] praise is comely.


• Pslam 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.


• Hebrews 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Of course, this is a very small list, but in these scriptures we can draw several conclusions. First of all, the “flesh” is weak, and it “profits us nothing”. In Mark 14:38, the Greek word for flesh is Sarx. Sarx is defined as both the covering of skin and tissue that covers the bones as well as the earthly or sensuous nature of man. Vines Concise Dictionary also relates the term “flesh” to the male sex organ. Clear enough? We are not to worship God from our flesh, but in “spirit and truth”. And whose spirit are we to worship God in? The answer is His spirit and our spirit. We cannot live a Godly life apart from Jesus. Jesus is the Vine, and we must abide in Him. The word “abide” in the King James Version denotes a sense of staying put and not moving out from a place. The point is that we must continue to pray and wait on the Lord. He’s not telling us to pray for a little while then go off and do whatever you want; but rather to pray and stay in His presence.

Many Psalms give us a great insight into how to enter in to God’s presence. The Psalms tell us that our prayers should be heavily laced with praise and thanksgiving toward God. Pslam 100 is actually explaining to us how we enter in to God’s presence in the first place. We are to enter in to His presence through praise and thanksgiving. Then once we get into His presence, we are to abide there. Understand that God is not on some ego trip where He wants to hear all the time how wonderful He is. He wants us to see how wonderful He is and get into agreement with His goodness and kindness. When we continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, we start to see God as He truly is – praise worthy! I have found that if I will just trust in those verses and praise God when I don’t feel like it that in no time I am praising Him whole heartedly. In this place, prayer time becomes really fun because you connect with Him and it becomes a time of dialog and interaction. And at this point, Psalm 147 becomes a reality for us, and our time with the Lord is actually pleasant. Look at it this way, if God lived in New York, you wouldn’t go to L.A. to go see Him. You would go to New York right? Well, obviously God does not live in L.A. or New York. You have to find His address. And conveniently for us, His address is found in our praise and thanksgiving. In other words, we use praise and thanksgiving to find Him.

Prayerful People of the Bible

In order to draw inspiration for a deeper prayer life, I thought I would illustrate some of the people in the Bible that I knew to have done amazing things for God and also had a record of consistent, meaningful prayer. By quoting so many scriptures, I attempt to show the cause and effect of prayer for purpose of inspiration. It is not my intent to sensationalize the concept of prayer time in order to simply seek miracles. Jesus promises that signs and wonders will follow those who believe (Mark 16:17-18). We can stand on that promise and focus on seeking Him through prayer. After all, we are also promised that if we first seek Him and His righteousness, all that other stuff will be given to us (Matthew 6:33).

Naturally, who do many people get the most inspiration from in the whole Bible? And who did the greatest thing in the whole Bible? Our Lord, Jesus who is Christ. So let’s start with Jesus and take a look at some of the miracles He performed and time in prayer that He spent BEFORE those miracles where performed.

The Prayer Life of Jesus

Our Lord Jesus was a man of God without equal in a long list of amazing Biblical characters in the Bible. I think that too many of us get a distorted view of Jesus since He was the Son of God and in fact God in the flesh. We can look to His life on earth as a textbook example of how God tells us to live a Godly life. We are told that we must rely on God, and Jesus did the same thing during His life on earth. Jesus actually admits to not being able to do anything apart from the Father (John 5:19, John 5:30). You will see in the following verses that Jesus spent much time in prayer on a regular basis.

Feeding the 5000
Matthew 14:13
When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.

Mathew 14 brings the bad news about John the Baptist’s death by the hand of Herod. This verse tells of Jesus’ response to the news of John’s death. Notice how it states that He departed into a deserted place. You’ll see through this study that Jesus often departed to a place to be by Himself or went off privately with his disciples. When Jesus returns from this prayer time, we read about the miracle of his feeding 5000 people.

Walking on Water
Matthew 14:23
And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.

Once the Lord had performed the miracle and taught the people, again He departed and went up on a mountain to pray. We also see that He was there alone. And after returning from praying alone on the mountain, we are told of the miracle where he walked out on the sea to the disciples who where in the boat.

The Transfiguration
Luke 9:28 - 30
Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. 30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,

In Luke 9, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to a mountain to pray. While He was praying, the Lord’s face and cloths were transformed, and Moses and Elijah appeared next to Him and he talked with them. Again, notice the scripture says “while He was praying”.

Gethsemane
Matthew 26:36
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

This was the beginning of the time that Jesus spend preparing Himself for His death that lay shortly ahead. These scriptures perfectly exemplify a prayer warrior preparing for spiritual battle. Here, the Lord was using prayer to get strength in order to go on to the kind of death the Father had planned for Him. In Luke 22, it is written that and angel appeared to Him and strengthened Him during this time. I don’t imagine this prayer time was fun at all, but we are able to see Jesus’ will (which was NOT to go to the cross) coming into submission to God’s will (which was FOR Him to go to the cross). I think this was the most critical moment in all of Christianity as our Christ was gathering up enough strength to go the last couple of yards. I wonder what would have happened if He had not prayed; or what would have happened if He had not gone back to pray several times after checking on the disciples (who where sleeping). We know from His prophecies in the Gospels, that He knew what was about to happen. I don’t think that’s in question here. Personally, I’m glad He didn’t just feel uncomfortable and give up. I’m glad He didn’t just see the disciples sleeping and get angry and storm off and go home. This is a perfect example of a man of God praying and praying until He gets the strength that He needs to do God’s will. This is a great example of abiding in prayer when your flesh is screaming NO, NO, NO! Who knows, maybe if he hadn’t gone back to pray those 3 times after checking in on the disciples He might not have had the physical strength to push through the excruciating torture and would have died BEFORE He made it to the cross. We can speculate on this all day long, but the truth is that He prayed, He persisted, then He was strengthened, then He submitted Himself to the Cross.

After the Temptation in the Wilderness
Luke 4:14
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

In this verse Jesus has just returned from being tempted by Satan in the wilderness for 40 days. Mind you, He is also fasting during this time. And when He has returned, He is full of the Spirit. Then He travels into Nazareth and amazes everyone with His teachings.

Additional Examples
Luke 5: 16
And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

Some translations have it written as “He would often slip away”.

Luke 6: 12
And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God

And in the next verse He chooses His twelve disciples.

Luke 11:1
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Then He proceeds to give us what is traditionally known as the Lord’s Prayer. And part of that prayer involves asking God to keep us out of temptation.

Notice through these verses that Jesus made a regular habit of going off either by Himself or taking a few disciples with Him in order to pray. You can see that many of his major miracles followed long periods of prayer. And this was not an occasional thing, but He made a habit of doing this. Private prayer time for Jesus was consistent. It was an on going practice in His life. In order to be in the power and will of God we must be in prayer. And we have to have that personal, private prayer time in order to be effective servants. After all, if Jesus Himself often withdrew Himself in order to have prayer time, shouldn’t we all the more?

Prayerful Saints in the Book of Acts

Acts 6:4
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

In chapter 6 of Acts, the disciples are getting themselves organized. There were some complaints that some of the widows were not being treated equally in regard to the distribution of food. The disciples got together and formulated a plan in order to distribute the food more equitably and efficiently. And the disciples (by this time more commonly referred to as apostles) decide that their time is better spent in prayer and ministry of the Word.

This is one of those passages where the reader reads it from his or her own perspective. You could read this passage and think the disciples were being arrogant and thinking that they were too good to wait on widows. Or you could see this as the disciples realizing that while serving the poor was good and something Jesus had instructed them on, that they would be more effective if they focused on prayer and ministering the word, which after all was their primary calling. However you slice and dice this section, you can see that the apostles made a turning point and went deeper into prayer.

Acts 10:9
On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour

In this verse, Peter momentarily leaves the company that he was traveling with in order to pray alone. Then after praying for a while (Bible does not say how long) Peter became hungry (sounds like the same kind of thing that happens when we fast, right?) and saw a vision. This was the vision where the Lord lowered down a sheet from Heaven and told Peter that all foods where “clean”, meaning that they no longer had to follow the strict dietary regulations defined in the Jewish law. Actually, the Lord was revealing to Peter that salvation was open to the Gentiles also, but that is a discussion for another time.

This vision was also the beginning of a wonderful meeting that God was orchestrating between Peter and a man named Cornelius.

Acts 10:1-5
There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian [band], [A] devout [man], and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. And now send men to Joppa, and call for [one] Simon, whose surname is Peter:

Cornelius was a man of prayer. Although he was not a Jew, he still worshipped God and prayed to God continuously. God ended up honoring Cornelius and paired him up with Peter. And it was during his meeting with Peter, that Peter realized that Christianity and the Holy Spirit was open for Jews and Gentiles alike.

Notice a couple of things in the first part of this passage. First, notice how it says that Cornelius prayed to God always. The transliterated Greek word for “always” is Diapantos, which means constantly or continually. We’ll see later on that this is exactly how the apostle Paul instructs us how to pray. Second, notice the time of day that Cornelius has the vision: it is the ninth our of the day, or 3pm. Now the Bible does not tell us directly if he was actually praying during that time, but that is immaterial at this point since we know he was devoted to prayer. We can safely say that he was available to God for the vision in the middle of the afternoon. I don’t mean to sound condemning or condescending, but how many of us are available to God during the afternoon if our schedules permit it? How many of us if we could, would actually make ourselves available to God during the afternoon? The point I am getting to here, is that we may need to at least consider altering our lifestyles in order to have more available time to God. Do you really think that Cornelius received this vision while he was talking on the phone and trying to make dinner with the kids screaming in the background? Doubtful.

Paul – The Prayerful Apostle

If you are at all familiar with the New Testament, you quickly realize that Paul the Apostle was an amazing man of God. In the book of Acts, we see that Paul was so filled with the Holy Spirit that the people around him figured out that if they brought him handkerchiefs and aprons to touch that people could get healed from them and evil spirits would be driven out (Acts 19:11). If you have read much of the New Testament, you quickly realize that Paul did amazing things for God. Not only that, but being an ex-Pharisee, he was extremely well read in the Law of Moses and the writings of the prophets. Additionally, the Bible itself testifies that we are to regard Paul as a servant of Christ and as someone entrusted with the secrete things of God (I Corinthians 4:1). We are so blessed to have such an apostle who was not only prayerful in his life, but knowledgeable, and loving towards all the saints. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Paul tells us about his prayer life.

Romans 1:9
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

Colossians 1:9
For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

1 Thessalonians 3:10
Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

Philippians 1:3-4
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,

2 Timothy 1:3
I thank God, whom I serve from [my] forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

1 Corinthians 14:18
I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:

Just in these few passages, we see that Paul is pretty busy in prayer alone (not to mention writing, preaching, teaching, arguing with the Jews, and physically working for his own needs where ever he goes [2 Thessalonians 3:8]). He makes mention in several of the scriptures above that he prays for the saints in his churches “night and day” and without ceasing. Therefore, Paul also instructs the churches – and us - to pray in a similar manner:

Romans 12:9 - 12
[Let] love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 10 [Be] kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray without ceasing.

1 Timothy 5:5
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

Ephesians 6:16-18
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Philippians 4:6
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with {an attitude of} thanksgiving;

You can see that almost every church that Paul was associated with, that he provides them an example of consistent prayer and also exhorts the saints in the churches to pray continually also. I suppose that if we kept digging, we could find examples of this teaching from Paul in every letter that he wrote to churches in the New Testament.

Daniel and Nehemiah

Daniel 9:2-3
In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

Daniel 9:21-23
21 Yea, whiles I [was] speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 22 And he informed [me], and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. 23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew [thee]; for thou [art] greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

As you probably already know, Daniel was a man of God who God was gifted with prophecies and the interpretation of dreams. Daniel served King Nebuchadnezzar during the exile of the Jews in Babylon. The book of Daniel is a fascinating book that tells of many exploits that God performed either through Daniel or on his behalf. Daniel was indeed a righteous man who had the kind of character traits that you and I wish we had. Although his heart certainly seemed right before God, we can also see in these passages that Daniel had a zealous prayer life.

In Daniel 9:2-3 we see that Daniel sets out to seek God by way of two key ingredients: prayer and supplications, and fasting. I would contend that he actually started seeking God in verse 2. Notice the subtle mention of the writings of Jeremiah the prophet. You and I would call that reading our Bible. And that was what Daniel was doing: reading his Bible. Granted at that point Daniel did not have the advantages of a closed cannon of scripture as we do today in our Bibles, but none the less, he was reading his Bible.

At the end of his period of fasting and prayer, we see that the angel Gabriel was sent in response to his prayer. Notice that Gabriel says “at the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth”. Gabriel is saying that as soon as Daniel started praying that God gave him the “OK” to come and visit Daniel. This is an excellent passage of scripture that really deserves more study than what I can offer up in this section. However, I would like to point out how quickly God does respond to prayer. I am stressing the point in this article that we must be devoted to constant prayer, and here we see an example of why we should be devoted to prayer. From this passage, it sounds like the moment we start praying, that God starts answering our prayers. And constant prayer is needed in order to see those answers make is through from the God’s throne to our lives.

Again, just as Jesus was transfigured on the mountain with Peter, James, and John while he was praying, and just as Cornelius in Acts saw his vision while he was praying, so to Daniel met Gabriel while he was praying. Honestly, I am not sure what the significance of this is. I don’t think we can expect to have our prayers answered in the moment that we are praying, but it is interesting to see how a person can draw close to God during prayer time.

Nehemiah 1:3-4
1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, 2 That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and [certain] men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province [are] in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also [is] broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. 4 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned [certain] days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, 5 And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: 6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned. 7 We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. 8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, [If] ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: 9 But [if] ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, [yet] will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. 10 Now these [are] thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. 11 O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer.

Nehemiah 2:1-2
And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had not been [beforetime] sad in his presence. 2 IN THE month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.

Nehemiah – a Jew serving the King of Persia as his cupbearer – is selected by God to lead the third return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls around the city. In the beginning of the book of Nehemiah, a report comes to Nehemiah concerning the state of the Jews in Judah. He is told that the gates of Jerusalem have been burned, the walls have been torn down, and his people are “in great affliction and reproach”. Nehemiah is crushed with this news. His response as you see in verse 4 is to weep, mourn, and pray. Notice that he does not become enraged and try to set up and army, nor does he rush to the King of Persia and immediately plead for assistance. Instead, Nehemiah goes to God in prayer. And in the following verses Nehemiah praises God, confesses his sin (both his personal sin and that of his immediate family) and his countrymen’s sin, then reminds God of his promises through Moses. Also notice that in this prayer, Nehemiah repeatedly asks God to hear his prayer and be attentive to it. This is a very similar pattern of prayer that Jesus instructs us to pray in Gospels where He tells us to ask God for what we want and keep on asking until we get it (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9).

One final point: notice that the book of Nehemiah begins in the month of Chislev while chapter 2 (when he approaches the King of Persia) begins the in month of Nisan. According to the Jewish calendar, several months have gone by at this point. In Nehemiah 2:2 we see that Nehemiah is still sad! In other words he is still in the same heart condition that started him off on seeking God. It would definitely seem like the news that he received in chapter 1 really crushed him. We don’t know from the scriptures how much Nehemiah was praying between the time he heard of the news of Jerusalem and when I saw the king, but I would say it is probably safe to imagine that if his heart had not changed, that he probably continued diligently in prayer over the course of these several months. Perhaps Nehemiah was engaged in the kind of “praying without ceasing” prayer that the apostle Paul instructs us on.

If you read the first two chapters of Nehemiah and Daniel chapter 9 on your own, you will see a striking similarity between their two prayers. Both men start their prayer by praising God, then they proceed to confess their sins and the sins of their countrymen, then finally they repeatedly petition God for what they want. Be careful not to turn this pattern to into a strict formula for prayer. Remember these two men are praying from their heart. They loved God, they loved their country, and they believed that God is merciful. We need to gain that kind of knowledge for ourselves. You may find that your heart leads you directly to asking for God’s help; or you may feel God’s joy in your own heart and go through a period of time just wanting to praise Him and worship Him. For that matter, God Himself may lead you through a dark time of having to face your own sins. Either way, you may find that at various times in your prayer life that you are covering the same bases that Daniel and Nehemiah covered in their prayers. The point is to pray from your heart – no matter what is on your heart (even if it is something you know you shouldn’t be feeling). And keep on praying even if it feels like no one is listening and you can hear the crickets chirping in the background.

Final Points

Praying and seeking God and getting answers from Him do not happen quickly. We have seen two Old Testament examples now of how Daniel and Nehemiah were persistent in their prayer lives. Yes, they eventually got what they wanted but they had to continue on in prayer for weeks and even months.

Many of us live very fast paced lives. We are bombarded with distraction from television, cell phones, the Internet and a hundred other sources. Even though we want to draw close to God, it is too easy to keep pushing Him back farther and farther in our lives. When that begins to happen, we can start to feel guilty for not putting in the time with Him. And as we drift from Him, our lives and relationships begin to suffer. Before you know it, we are living lives no different than an unbeliever. And that to our shame!

Neither you nor I will ever be able to reach for the higher calling that God has placed on our lives unless we get serious about connecting with Him on a regular basis. That starts with prayer. If we do not alter our lives and make time for Him, we risk getting sucked into a continuous cycle of prayer-distraction-guilt-prayer-distraction-guilt. We must draw our example and inspiration from our biblical heroes, who by prayer and reliance on God built churches, spread the Word of God, and saved their fellow countrymen.

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Bibliography

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