A Man of Prayers

Hey everyone. 

I have just returned from my one athletic endeavor of the year, Bogota High School's annual Senior vs. Faculty basketball game.  It was fun and we only lost by eight this year.  I held my own with four points and ten rebounds.  Not bad for a man of my age and relative physical condition.

Any way, I wanted to return to Nehemiah and see what else we can learn from him to help us build our spiritual lives and our ministries.  Now to this point we have seen that Nehemiah really cares about God's people.  His concern leads almost immediately to prayer.  In fact we can see throughout the book of Nehemiah that he is indeed a man of prayer.  As I study Nehemiah, I am reading a commentary called Be Determined, by Warren Wiersbe.  Wiersbe states that the book of Nehemiah records twelve prayers altogether.  That is an impressive number in a book that only has thirteen chapters.  That is a rate of almost one prayer per chapter.  It says something about Nehemiah - he understood the power and impact of prayer. 

Perhaps he was familiar with Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain."  He had something big and important to build and he was wise to turn to God to make things happen for him.  In fact, this has brought about a conviction in me that I am foolish if I do not pray.  And I do not want to be foolish. I recognize that I am not powerful enough, strong enough, cool enough or smart enough to build a dynamic ministry on my own power, but if I am not praying that is exactly what I am trying to do.  So after studying this, I have committed myself to greater prayer, and God has indeed blessed it.

Tom