When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Neh 1:4

Nehemiah heard the walls were broken, he was convinced he had to do something about it. But before acting on it or even talking about it to anyone. Nehemiah for some days went about weeping, fasting, and praying. We hurry to do things, we are more interested in doing and planning. After we start we pray for the success of it.  Nehemiah prayed to the Lord, and the Israelites confessed their sins. Prayer is the most spoken topic but the least practiced discipline. The Devil is not scared of professing believers but shivers at a child of God who prays.

Nehemiah’s prayer is from verses 4 to 11, we read in Neh 1:11 “Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man” Remember favor comes from the Lord.

Can you believe Nehemiah was praying for the rebuilding of the walls to be permitted and even funded by the foreign king? But remember Nehemiah asked for the impossible for the glory of God and for the protection of God’s people. Most of the time we pray for our greed and remain unthankful to God when he meets our needs.

When the King saw the burden on Nehemiah’s face, the king asked Nehemiah, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but the sadness of heart.” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.

Just a thought, Nehemiah was never sad even when working under a pagan king. Social media and the world around us is pushing us to live in a life with a scorecard compared with every other person and an un-content life. Are we content and what hurts us, what brings us to our knees, is it about the kingdom of God?

I believe this prayer changed people’s hearts and made the king’s heart favorable above all the hand of the Lord was on the mission.