The Book of Nehemiah starts and ends with prayer. And in between, Nehemiah oftens sends up quick prayers to heaven and asks for God’s help. Nehemiah was the royal governor of the province, with all the authority and wealth of the king behind him; but he depended solely on God to help him finish the work.
The Christian worker who can get along comfortably without prayer isn’t getting much done for God and certainly isn’t threatening the enemy too much. “To be a Christian without prayer,†said Martin Luther, “is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.â€Â
Nehemiah faced a gigantic task, a task too big for him but not too great for God. “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers,†said Phillips Brooks. “Pray for powers equal to your tasks.†One mark of true spiritual leaders is their honest acknowledgment of their own inadequacy and their humble trust in the power of God.
We have Nehemiah’s brief spontaneous prayers recorded in the book, but behind those prayers was a life of prayer as seen in chapter 1. He certainly had a disciplined prayer life; for our “telegraph†prayers accomplish little if our hearts are not in tune with God. Most Christians never realize the hours that leaders must spend in prayer in order to get the job done. “Pray for great things,†said evangelist R.A. Torrey, “expect great things, work for great things, but above all, pray.†Nehemiah certainly followed that advice.
