Well, this week we have seen a man talk to God with a roadmap for his prayer. Today he ends his prayer with the request – it’s time to ask!
Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man.
Nehemiah 1:11
Not a long list is it? You would think he could have just said those words and that would be good enough. Let me say there are times when we are in situations where that is relevant. An unexpected event can have you quickly praying those few words. There’s nothing wrong with that, for we must judge the situation we are in. You notice yesterday that it was not the case as Nehemiah had been praying for over 4 months. So that is why Nehemiah left the request to the end and prayed the way he did.
You will probably all know the model prayer, i.e. The Lord’s prayer. Notice that does not start off with requests for ourselves. It starts with relationship – “Our Father”, then residence – “which art in heaven”, then reverence – “hallowed be His name”, then request 1 – “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Then we come onto request 2 – “Give us…”
So when we do get to request 2 be specific. Let God know exactly what you want. God loves to hear your requests. Jesus said when you pray and ask anything in my name…you must believe that God is interested in you coming to Him. You come as James says by “faith not doubting but believing”.
The wonderful thing about being specific in praying is you know when it has been answered, don’t you? There can be no doubt, I have received what I have asked for you can say. Listen to what Nehemiah says “Lord, make me successful“.
Jabez prayed “Bless me”, in other words enlarge my tent. You see, if your prayer is going to bring Glory to God it will be successful. What is wrong with asking God to make you a success at what you’re doing? The whole roadmap of Nehemiah was to rebuild God’s city Jerusalem not for himself, not only for the Jewish nation but most importantly for God. In order for that to happen, he had to ask the king to allow him to go to Jerusalem to do the task. So he prays “when I go to the king let me be successful“.
You can read how that turned out in Nehemiah chapter 2.
May God bless you too in your roadmap and may it ultimately give God glory.