As I was reading about the struggles of Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem I came to the place where Nehemiah was challenged once again by the forces of evil; Sanballat, Tobiah and the Arabs, Ammonites and Ashdodites (its always the “ites”). And I was challenged to think about how I overcome the trials in my life when the Holy Spirit posed a question that sort of surprised me… Are you telling the truth? My initial response was “yes,” but as I thought about how Nehemiah responded I had to be a bit more honest.
His first response was “not” to shout back at those opposing him. I thought about how many times my first response was to immediately respond to the challenge directly. But that’s not what he did… He turned to God. And when he did he prayed honestly and told God exactly what he wanted.
Neh 4:4-5 Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! 5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.
I found that to be in contrast to the way I have prayed when I finally turned to God for help. And when I thought about those prayers I realized how many times they were carefully crafted in order not to “offend” God; not to tell Him what to do. But that is exactly what He does not want to hear in our prayers. How many times have we screened our true feelings when in fact nothing is hidden from Him? How often do we forget that He looks to our heart and not to our words for out true intentions.
As I thought about it I realized that in screening everything we say in prayer, we are missing out on the opportunity for God to truly grow and strengthen our relationship with Him. How many times have we said “not my will but Your will be done” and never really and truly meant it like Jesus did in the garden. That little “tag line” is so often just our conclusion, as is often “in Jesus’ name,” which really doesn’t express our true feelings.
The key for us today is to take a lesson from Nehemiah. It’s only when we learn to tell the truth in prayer, no matter how it may sounds, that we will be able to enter into a true, intimate relationship with the Lord. God is big enough to hear our honest and truthful prayers that tell Him where we really are. Like Jesus in the garden, when our real feelings are laid out before the Father we are ready to deal with the challenge in truth and trust in His answer.
Did God respond to Nehemiah’s prayer and do what he asked? No, but if you read on it’s clear that God gave him the wisdom to deal with the challenge in a way that resolved the threat. I wonder how many times my “well crafted” prayers just delayed God’s response and action until He was able to get me to “tell the truth” about how I felt.
If we were all to spend a little more time in the Old Testament I think our foundation would become much stronger. The Word can teach us a great deal about being honest with God, and a good place to spend some time is in the Psalms. As we read the words of David, over and over again we hear the ring of truth in his cries to God.
Could that be the reason God called him a man after His own heart?