Introduction

What do you do when a crushing burden is suddenly dropped in your lap? The doctor says cancer, or the phone rings at 2 a.m. with news that a loved one died suddenly, or you stumble across a text thread where your spouse is flirting with a coworker, or your child begins spiraling into foolish, destructive patterns.

Sometimes we cry, and sometimes we get angry, maybe both. You probably begin scheming to solve the problem. But God tells us in today’s passage that above all else, you must pray. Desperate times demand desperate, God-honoring prayer (vv. 1–11).

Last Sunday, I introduced Nehemiah, and we talked about Nehemiah’s desperate times. Most likely Ezra inspired the Israelites to rebuild Jerusalem. But their enemies sent King Artaxerxes a slanderous letter, and he stopped the work. Verse 3 may indicate they even destroyed the work Israel had recently done.

It was a crushing blow. Jerusalem had been in ruins for 140 years, and the small, weak Jewish community there was struggling to survive. Now Artaxerxes had turned against them. And much more is at stake than building projects and economics. God’s promises to Abraham, David, and the prophets are all at stake. If Israel dissolves, God’s plan of redemption also dissolves. From a human perspective, God’s purposes hinged on this tiny, exposed community, and they are barely hanging on.

But Nehemiah was not poor or exposed. He’s King Artaxerxes cupbearer, and he lived in the most powerful, luxurious home of his time. However, Hanani’s report crushed him, as if he were there, struggling to survive himself. He’s desperate. And in his desperation, he begins to pray. In the process, Nehemiah sets a wonderful example. Desperate times demand desperate prayers. Beyond that, he challenges us to always pray truly God-honoring prayers. This is a wonderful pattern for your prayers. I want you to always imitate 5 marks of God-honoring prayer whenever you pray, not just when you feel desperate.

I.  Devotion (v. 4)

Nehemiah’s Grief: Nehemiah says that when he heard Hanani’s report, “I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days.” Even though Nehemiah was secure and comfortable himself, he grieved deeply for Jerusalem. He loved his people, and he was zealous for God’s promises.

It’s probably a good time to mention that we can learn a lot from this passage about how to think about and pray for America. Like Nehemiah, you should love your country, you should truly grieve over its rebellion and every hardship we endure, and you should pray for the health, peace, and prosperity of the USA.

But don’t forget that America is not Israel. God primarily works today through the church, not a nation. Your first priority is to the church and the Great Commission, not to the USA. So, grieve for America and pray for America the way Nehemiah prays for Israel. But understand the differences. Otherwise, you’ll lose sight of God’s priorities and spiral into idolatry. That said, Nehemiah challenges our devotion to prayer in two ways.

Pray first. When he heard the report, he “wept and mourned” but he also fasted and prayed. He got right to prayer.

That’s important because my first impulse is often to worry and then to begin scheming a solution. Sometimes, I never get around to praying, or I wait until I have no other option. Maybe your first impulse is to gripe, complain, and be angry.

But not Nehemiah. His first impulse was to pray. He fell to his knees and cried out to God. Make this your habit also. When a crushing burden hits you, pray first. Run to God before you run to yourself.

And do the same when a brother shares his burdens. Put your arm around him and pray. There’s no better way you can love him than to pray together and anchor his thoughts in God’s character. Pray first. 2^nd…

Pray long. Nehemiah fasted and prayed “for days.” In fact, 4 months pass between the month Chislev when he receives the report and the month Nisan when he will appeal to the king. So, for 4 months, Nehemiah devoted himself to prayer and fasting.

Most of us don’t have any idea what it’s like to be that devoted to prayer. We are so busy and so distracted that we can’t pray for 4 minutes, let alone 4 months. But Jesus warned that you will never know the Lord and the power of his grace, until you labor in prayer.

Mark 9 tells a story about how the disciples failed to cast out a demon. Verses 28–29 say, “When He came into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, ‘Why could we not drive it out?’And He said to them, ‘This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.’” God doesn’t hand out his unusual blessing like candy. His full power only comes through whole-hearted devotion to prayer.

Do you want the hand of God on your life? Do you want God to move in our community and our church for the sake of the gospel? Jesus says this power only comes through serious prayer.

Devote yourself to prayer. Consider fasting to increase your desperation for God. If you can’t help in VBS this week, consider skipping a meal each day and spend that time in prayer. I know you are busy, but nothing is more important than prayer. When you really sense your need for God and you share Nehemiah’s zeal for God’s purpose, you will find time to pray. Devote yourself to prayer. The 2^nd characteristic of Nehemiah’s prayer is…

II.  Reverence (v. 5)

Verse 5 begins Nehemiah’s prayer. Remember that he prayed and fasted for 4 months. Obviously, he said much more than 7 verses in 4 months. Rather, v. 11 tells us that this is his final prayer before he appealed to the king. It’s a wonderful model of how you can honor God with your prayers.

And God-honoring prayer must be reverent. Therefore, like many other biblical prayers, Nehemiah begins with praise. He doesn’t jump to his wish list, and he doesn’t come brashly, demanding that God do what he wants. Instead, he comes reverently.

Remember that God is not Santa Claus, and he’s not the big vending machine in the sky. He is the Lord, and he is your Father. You must see prayer as first and foremost an act of worship and fellowship and only secondarily as a means of getting what you need. Furthermore, you’ll never think rightly about your request until you think rightly about God.

So, slow down and to gaze at the glory of God. Praise him for his glory, thank him for his grace, and fellowship with your Father. It honors him, it will enrich your experience, and it will transform how you see your requests. Nehemiah does this by first…

Praise God for his greatness. He begins, “I beseech You, O LordGod of heaven, the great and awesome God.” “God of heaven” speaks to God’s transcendence. We live down below, on the earth. But God is in heaven, high above us.

And he is the “great and awesome God.” We use the word awesome so often that it hardly means anything to us. So, maybe we should go back to the old KJV translation, “the great and terrible God.” It gets your attention. Of course, God is not evil, like Ivan the Terrible. But he is terrifying in the sense that he is intimidating and worthy of fear.

We love to emphasize God’s love and grace, and rightfully so. But they only mean so much when you are facing an overwhelming enemy. For example, we just celebrated the 80^th anniversary of D-Day this week. If you were in Nazi concentration camp, the Allies compassion wouldn’t be very comforting unless they were also strong, just, and terrifying to Nazis.

Praise God that He is terrifying to evil because he is mighty, holy, and just. Remember that when you pray because God’s terrifying glory is a great anchor for the soul. Slow down. Behold the glory of God. Praise him for his infinite greatness. 2^nd, Nehemiah challenges you to…

Praise God for his faithfulness. Nehemiah worships God as the one, “Who preserves…” Lovingkindness translates the all-important Hebrew word hesed. It describes God’s merciful loyalty to the promises he gave Israel. It was vital to a godly man like Nehemiah because Israel failed a lot. They rebelled against God, and they deserved wrath. So, God’s steadfast, merciful love gave great comfort and hope to those who were godly.

Praise God that you can also rest in God’s steadfast, merciful love? There is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Praise God for that because I fail God every day. If his love depended on my obedience, he would have abandoned me long ago. If our relationship relied on my faithfulness, there’d be no relationship. But it doesn’t. God holds you; you don’t hold him.

Remember that when you pray. When you are feeling a little too good about yourself, remember you are a sinner and a debtor to mercy. And when you are desperate or discouraged, remember God’s gospel promises. God is faithful. Rest in his grace, and worship him for his grace. It honors God, it will calm your soul, and it will transform how you see your problems.

So, Nehemiah begins his prayer by praising God. Make that your practice when you pray. Don’t jump to what you want. God is the Lord. Honor your Father in prayer. Jesus began the Lord’s prayer with praise. He wants you to do the same. The 3^rd characteristic of Nehemiah’s prayer is…

III.  Humility (vv. 6–7)

I’d like to offer 3 challenges based on Nehemiah’s example.

Come as a beggar. Notice that Nehemiah asks God to hear his prayer. Over the past 4 years, I’ve spent a lot of time praying the Psalms, and it’s stood out to me how often the psalmist asks God to hear him. That’s because Christians today rarely ask God to hear their prayers. We just assume that he does.

You may reply, “Why should I ask God to hear when he has promised that he will?” The reason is that you do not deserve God’s attention. You must remember that, you are coming into the presence of an almighty, all-knowing, and holy God. You don’t deserve to be there. Honor God in how you come. Don’t barge in demanding God’s attention. Come as a beggar, asking God to hear and amazed that he does. 2^nd…

Identify with your brothers. Verses 6–7 are primarily confession. And it’s striking that Nehemiah includes himself in this confession. He says he is “confess(ing) the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. I and my father’s house have sinned.We have acted very corruptly against You.”

It’s striking, because Nehemiah wasn’t the one sacrificing babies to false gods or killing the prophets. Nehemiah is a godly man. So, why does Nehemiah include himself in this confession?

First, Nehemiah may not have been as bad as others, but he was still a sinner, and who shared some guilt. That’s good because it’s easy, to notice the speck in everyone else’s eye. We fume about the evils in our culture, or we look down our noses at our families or the church.

But don’t forget that you are a sinner too. In Luke 13, Jesus warned that even if you are among the most moral people in the culture, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (vv. 3, 5). Stay focused the beam in your own eye more than you do whatever is in someone else’s eye.

Beyond that Nehemiah is expressing corporate solidarity. We like to say, “You win as team, and you lose as a team.” Sometimes an athlete plays a great game, but his team loses. The great ones don’t boast about how many points they scored; they talk about what they could have done better, and the grieve the loss. They share the defeat.

That’s what Nehemiah did. He wasn’t aloof. He identified with his brothers and shared in the loss. That’s how you should respond when your marriage, your family, or your church struggle. Don’t look down your nose and gripe about everyone else. It so nauseating to hear people grip about their spouse or the church as if they are so great. We win as a team, and we lose as a team. Think, act, and pray like a team player. The 3^rd challenge is…

Confess your sins. Nehemiah is pretty blunt about Israel’s sin. They acted “very corruptly,” and they disobeyed God’s commandments. We like to sugarcoat our sin, but Nehemiah calls it like it is.

Jesus taught in the Lord’s Prayer that confessing your sin is an essential aspect of prayer. Your sin offends God, it’s evil, and you must acknowledge it for what is. That’s what it means to confess.

True, confession is not the most enjoyable part of prayer, but if you want to draw near to God, you must come with a clean heart. If you love God, you will hate your sin and want it out of the way between you and God. Confession also forces you to lean in on the grace of God. Doing so will only enrich your experience of God in prayer.

So, Christian, you love God, and you want to honor God in prayer. Confession is an important way you can declare God’s holiness and magnify the gospel. Make sure that confession is an important part of your prayer routine. Discipline yourself to reflect on where you have sinned, ask the Lord to forgive, ask for grace to change, and rest in the grace he promises. Pray with great humility. But then turn that humility into the 4^th characteristic…

IV.  Boldness (vv. 8–11a)

These verses provide an important balance to humility and reverence in prayer. Yes, Nehemiah came as a beggar in need of grace, but he did not present his requests sheepishly. Neither should you. You should boldly bring your requests to God. But before you do, be sure to imitate Nehemiah by…

Praying biblically: This is very important, and it’s where prosperity preachers and even many Christians get it wrong. They start with what they want as if their will is all important. “I want good health. I want this job. I want to marry this person.” They pray boldly, but with the goal of bending God’s will to theirs. They want what they want more than what God wants.

Nehemiah is bold, but he gets there a very different way. Specifically, vv. 8–10 consist almost entirely of quotations from the Law or summaries of multiple biblical statements. Look again at his appeal in vv. 8–9. It’s all Scripture.

He knew what God required, and he knew what God had promised. Then he prayed according to God’s revealed will. He was bold, but he simply called on God to act based on his promises and based on his purpose to glorify himself. That’s very different from making a selfish demand and essentially challenging him to do what I want.

For example, there are two ways you can pray for the elections this fall One would be to start with what you want and what you think is best. Some of that will probably be biblical, but you will almost certainly mix in a lot of selfishness, and you will demand things that are not as important to God as they are to you.

But if your passion is to honor God and you trust that his will is best, you will learn as best you can how Scripture says you should pray for the elections. You will know what the purpose of government is, how the biblical ethic is at stake in this election, and how the issues fit in God’s priority structure.

You bend your will to God’s. Then you pray for the things you believe Scripture would prioritize. This kind of prayer honors God. So, dig into God’s Word. Know the heart and mind of God and pray based on God’s revealed will. When you do this, God invites you to…

Pray boldly. That’s exactly what Nehemiah does. He rehearses God’s will in vv. 8–9. Then he makes his appeal in vv. 10–11. He’s not sheepish, is he? Again, it’s not because Nehemiah is being brash or demanding. Rather, he knows who God is and what God has promised, and he appeals to God to act accordingly.

This kind of bold prayer honors God. You should do the same. Pray like you really believe God is good, all-knowing, and sovereign. Pray like you really believe God is committed to his promises and that he will keep them.

So often, we are afraid to really appeal to God. We think it’s spiritual to just sheepishly say, “Whatever you want, God. Your will be done.” But there’s no faith in that. You’re not declaring God’s glory or his purpose.

But when you say something like, “God, your Word says you hate evil, and you will judge ungodliness. So, please put to shame those who are proudly flaunting their rebellion against your will,” you honor God. Of course, also pray boldly, based on Scripture, for their repentance and merciful salvation.

So, when you are desperate about the kinds of things I mentioned in my introduction, or you are just anxious and burdened, consider how Scripture speaks to your situation. What is God’s desired will, and what has God promised? Then cast your desperation on the Lord with a biblical, bold prayer. You will honor God, and you will find rest in the anchor f Scripture. The fifth characteristic of Nehemiah’s prayer is…

V.  Specificity (v. 11)

Nehemiah’s comment at the end of v. 11 that he was the king’s cupbearer is very important to his prayer. Like Joseph and Esther, Nehemiah didn’t view his cushy job as a way to protect himself from harm. Instead, he believed God put him where he was, “for such a time as this.” God made him cupbearer to appeal to Artaxerxes.

Therefore, he makes two specific requests, “Make your servant successful today” and “grant him compassion before this man.” It’s bold and it’s specific, but again it is based in the character and promises of God.

When you have a burden that you believe is just before God, you should be just as bold and just as specific. You don’t honor God by praying bland, toothless prayers. You honor him when you pray with real faith in who God is and what he has said, and you ask God to act specifically.

So, what burdens are weighing on your heart based on godly, Spirit-driven desires? Don’t be afraid to ask. Boldly and specifically plead with God to work. God may not always say yes. Maybe God knows something you don’t. Maybe you misunderstood his priorities. But you will honor God. And I wonder what he would do, if we prayed more like Nehemiah and then we took bold steps of faith like Nehemiah does in chapter 2?

Conclusion

Desperate times demand desperate, God-honoring prayer. Some of you are carrying heavy burdens. Devote yourself to God-honoring prayer. Whether you are burdened or not, follow Nehemiah’s pattern this week. Improve your prayer patterns. Devote yourself to God-honoring prayer.