Praying wth Confidence

My first position on leadership with InterVarsity was that of prayer coordinator. I knew little about how to lead a prayer meeting, let alone how to pray. I needed help and guidance. Some help came through the friendly suggestions of my staff workers, and I gained from trial and error. But a lot of help came through divine grace.

One such moment of grace came one evening as I was thumbing through the book of Nehemiah. I was reading through the first chapter, which consists of Nehemiah's passionate intercession for Jerusalem. The words of that prayer came alive and taught and shaped my understanding of the dynamics of praying:

"In the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, 'Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.' When I heard these things I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven" (Nehemiah 1:1-4, NIV).

Note that Nehemiah turns to God in response to a crisis. The people in Jerusalem are in disgrace and the city walls have been burned. He immediately turns to God. Most of us are like that; we turn to God in times of crisis. Yet we're often accompanied by a vague sense of guilt when we do so. Why? Deep within, we berate ourselves for not having it together enough to pray all the time, whether in joy or desperate need. Yes, we would do well to converse with God all the time, but what we fail to see in being hard on ourselves is that our urgent needs and crises remind us that we are deeply human creatures. We need someone outside of us to care for us and be in control for us, two things which we are unable to do for ourselves. It is befitting for us to turn to the Lord during times of crisis and need because it is an affirmation of his Lordship and our humanity, truths that need to be ingrained in our souls again and again. Prayer helps to drive these affirmations deep into our souls.

Nehemiah was faced with incredibly bad news. How could he respond in faith? The contours of his; vastly meaningful prayer reveal three things that shaped his trust in God.