O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before You day and night.  Nehemiah 1:5-6

     In this story God has placed a tremendous burden on Nehemiah’s heart: to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. (Read chapter 1 of Nehemiah; it’s pretty great.)There were a lot of obstacles before he even began. When God laid the burden on his heart, the first thing Nehemiah did was sit down and weep. Is there anything in your life that you care enough about to weep? Is there anything outside of yourself that you are burdened so strongly about that you would cry? I think we all have been given something for which we are to have a passion, something for which we should deeply care. Do you care about something or someone beyond yourself? I hope so. If not, ask God to give you a sensitive heart to hear His promptings.

     After Nehemiah wept and fasted, he prayed. He begins with a high view of God. Then he gives an accurate view of himself and the people for whom he is praying: he says ,”God, we have sinned. That’s why we’re in this mess.” Then he reminds God of His promises, asking boldly. Lastly, after telling God his burden to remedy what is wrong, he prays, “O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in Your name. Give Your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man (the king).”

     I love this prayer! He doesn’t wishy-wash around. Once he praises God, confesses his sins, he zooms in to close the deal: “now God, grant us favor and success as I go to the king.” Do you pray bold prayers? Nehemiah has been praying for four months, night and day. Then when he is ready, he says, “God, here I go. Pave the way and give me success.” What if you were persistent, specific and bold in your prayers? Maybe you would believe in answered prayer a lot more than you do! I think we don’t get excited about answered prayer, because we don’t really pray much. Or we pray wimpy general, bless-this-day prayers.

     My husband says that when he began being burdened about prayer but wasn’t as consistent as he wished he was, he targeted people he knew who did pray diligently and gave them his requests and asked them to pray. Eventually, he developed the important discipline of coming to God and boldly asking—persistently! Will you begin?

*What is your bold, specific prayer that you want to ask of God? Write it now.

God, I love Nehemiah’s boldness; I want to learn to ask You boldly, specifically and persistently the things that I know You desire for me. May I believe that You long to grant me success and favor. I thank You for Your great heart and that Your ears are attentive to my prayers. Asking in Jesus’ name, I pray , Amen.


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