The prayer that changed a nation's story

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Nehemiah 1-3; Psalm 48

TO CHEW ON: "And so it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days' I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." - Nehemiah 1:4


The word economy of the Bible quickly gets us to the crux of the matter in this story that takes place at the end of the Old Testament time. The described state of his fellow Hebrews in Jerusalem distresses Nehemiah (who is a servant of Persian King Artaxerxes) immensely. So he does what we should all do when we're distressed—goes to the One who can help.

Nehemiah 1:5-11 is Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer. Let's look closely at it to see what we can learn about prayer from it.

1. Nehemiah begins by addressing God: "Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God..." His beginning puts him in his place and vaults God to His. By saying these faith-building words (Nehemiah 1:5) Nehemiah also reminds himself of God's power and ability to answer.

2. Nehemiah includes himself with the people (Nehemiah 1:6-7).  Though he is many miles away and probably hasn't participated personally in the sins he confesses, he stands in solidarity with his countrymen. His identification with them also shows his understanding of how God works in and through nations.

3. He prays God's words back to Him. Nehemiah 1:8-9 are a paraphrase a Moses' words in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, recalling words of warning and blessing to Israel from centuries earlier (see Leviticus 26:33 and Deuteronomy 4:25-27, 29-30; 28:63-67; 30:4).

4. He names his request. He reminds God of the investment He has already made in Israel (Nehemiah 1:10) and pleads for mercy, for himself (from his boss, the King of Persia; 'would God move the heart of a king to give him favor?') and in that, also for all of Israel (Nehemiah 1:11).

The rest of the book of Nehemiah tells the story of how King Artaxerxes releases Nehemiah from his duties, finances and equips his trip to Jerusalem, and then how Nehemiah leads the rebuilding of the Jerusalem wall and eventually a spiritual revival.

What large and small things are troubling us today? Let's pray about them. Let's pray remembering how big and capable God is in contrast to our own neediness, frailty, and unworthiness. Let's pray God's words—His promises—back to Him, naming our requests with all the passion and emotion they bring up in his.

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for prayer. Help me to realize that a burden about a situation or person is also an invitation to pray about it. Help me to pray from my heart,  with faith in You and Your power. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 48

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

When God feels far away

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Job 35:1-16

TO CHEW ON: "For you say, 'What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?' " Job 35:3

In this third speech of Elihu's, he answers two questions he has heard Job ask:
1] What is the value of virtue (Job 35:2-8)?
2] Why doesn't God answer the prayers of the afflicted (Job 35:9-16)?

I'm going to focus on Elihu's response to the first question.: "What is the value of virtue?" See Job's own phrasing of it in Job 21:15.

Elihu answers by establishing God's remoteness. He is distant, says Elihu, and thus untouched by human actions. But, Elihu has himself said earlier that God does interact with people (Job 33:10-11, 24-26).

The commentary writer elaborates on Elihu's mixed messages:

"By stressing God's transcendence, he has protected God from the actions of people. But the reasoning here contradicts his earlier claim that God reacts to the sins by punishment and discipline and to righteousness by reward. ... By suggesting that God is indifferent, Elihu comes close to Job's position of challenging his justice" - Asbury Bible Commentary - accessed via "Study This" on BibleGateway.

We too may sometimes side with Elihua here, feeling that what we do makes no difference to God; that He is above and beyond our puny existence. I love how Wayne Grudem tackles this issue in his Systematic Theology:

"The term often used to say that God is much greater than creation is the word transcendent. Very simply, this means that God is far "above" the creation in the sense that he is greater than the creation and he is independent of it. 

God is also very much involved in creation … The technical term used to speak of God's involvement in creation is the word immanent, meaning "remaining in" creation. The God of the Bible is no abstract deity removed from and uninterested in his creation. The Bible is the story of God's involvement with his creation and particularly the people in it" - Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 267.

God sending Jesus is evidence of that involvement—His literal skin in the game (John 1:14). Through Jesus we are intimately connected to Him, despite what our feelings say:

• " 'Lo I am with you always…' " - Matthew 28:29.

• " 'Neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand' " - John  10:28.

• " 'Abide in Me and I in you' " - John 15:4.

• "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life (nor angels, principalities powers etc.) shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" - Romans 8:38.

PRAYER: Dear God, I know the facts about Your presence. Help me to apply them to my life when my feelings say otherwise. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Praise from everything

"Praise the Lord from the earth, You ... clouds" - Psalm 148:7-8

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Psalm 148:1-14

TO CHEW ON: "Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven." - Psalm 148:13

Where do you see God's glory? What brings praise to your lips? The psalmist sees God's praiseworthiness everywhere.

Heaven: He directs the hosts of angels and heavenly bodies to pour out praise (Psalm 148:1-4).

Nature: He sees praise emanating from the natural world— from the sea creatures in the ocean depths to the weather ("fire and hail, snow and clouds"), from geography ("mountains and all hills") to all living things (plants, beasts, creeping critters and flying fowls) (Psalm 148:5-10).

People: He admonishes all people on earth—from kings to judges, from young to old of both men and women to praise the LORD (Psalm 148:11-13).

I ask myself, do I see God as praiseworthy in all those places? Yes, His power and ability to create the visually beautiful in scene, the mind-bendingly incredible in design inspires my worship for sure. But do I also praise and worship when I don't understand? When 'acts of God' bring human lives into shambles, when earth's inhabitants seem to be entirely out of His control?

The psalmist ends with a reason to praise: "He has exalted the horn of His people" - Psalm 148:14.

I would suggest that that is also my reason, our reason, to praise. For He will work all the apparent chaos (in nature and among people) into a final picture that will make sense and show Him to be the just, holy, righteous, loving God He claims to be (Revelation 15:3-4;  21:23-27;  22:12-15).

PRAYER: Dear God, how my perspective changes when I recognize that Your fingerprints are on every created thing and that You are never absent from the affairs of nature or people. Help me to see life through the lens of Your immanence. Amen.

MORE: God's transcendance, immanence and pantheism

When we consider God and creation, we need to keep several concepts in mind:

1. God is separate from and much greater than creation. The word used to describe this is transcendent. Wayne Grudem explains the word in his Systematic Theology:

"Very simply, this means that God is far 'above' the creation in the sense that he is greater than the creation and he is independent of it" p. 267.

2. God is also involved in creation. we say He is immanent or "remaining in" creation. Grudem again:

"The God of the Bible is no abstract deity removed from, and uninterested in his creation. The Bible is the story of God's involvement with his creation, and particularly the people in it" - Ibid.

3. However, God is not equal to creation—what we call pantheism.

"The scriptural account of God's relation to his creation is also distinct from pantheism. The Greek word pan means 'all' or 'every,' and pantheism is the idea that everything, the whole universe, is God, or is part of God." - Grudem, p. 268.

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The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. - Used with permission.