Nehemiah's Prayer in Nehemiah 1

I love the prayers in the Bible - they can teach us how we should pray. Nehemiah, in this prayer, had just found out about the state of Jerusalem. He was the king's cupbearer in a foreign country, but the Holy City of his ancestors was in a mess and it affected him greatly.

Nehemiah 1:5-11

And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments, please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

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It is a prayer of praise - Jesus' model prayer says that we should praise God first (hallowed be Thy name)

It is a prayer of repentance. True revival in the Church only comes with true heartfelt conviction of sin and repentance. 

It is a prayer of supplication and wrestling with God. I believe that God wants us to wrestle with Him in prayer. Nehemiah reminds God of His promise He made to Moses, not because God has forgotten, but because God wants us to understand Him and His Word, so we wrestle with Him using His promises. 

Above all it's a faithful and reverent prayer. Nehemiah remains respectful and reverent. He knows who he is coming to - his Creator and the only One who can solve this crisis. Nehemiah works for a king who has earthly power, but he knew that the One he was praying to has ultimate power over everything! Kingdoms rise and fall at God's command! 

Let us come to our Creator, Lord, Master, King with reverence, casting all our cares on Him. 

Daniel's Prayer in Daniel 9

 I'm going through the book of Daniel atm and this morning I read his prayer in chapter 9 and as I read it, I thought this could be a prayer for our current world today! 

Daniel 9:3-19

³ Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. ⁴ And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, ⁵ we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. ⁶ Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land. ⁷ O Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

⁸ “O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. ⁹ To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him. ¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. ¹¹ Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him. ¹² And He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great disaster; for under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹³ “As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice. ¹⁵ And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and made Yourself a name, as it is this day—we have sinned, we have done wickedly!

¹⁶ “O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. ¹⁷ Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. ¹⁸ O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. ¹⁹ O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”

In Daniel's prayer there serious supplication where Daniel denies himself anything worldly (he fasts and puts on sackcloth and ashes - symbols of mourning, grief and sorrow).
He praises God with reminders that He is great and awesome, One who keeps His covenant. God is full of mercy with the ones He loves and who obey Him.
Daniel repents on behalf of the whole of those in captivity. They have departed from Him - i.e. from His precepts and judgements. They haven't listened to those God had sent to warn them, the prophets. They were a disobedient people.
Daniel asks the Lord to hear him, to shine upon His sanctuary which lays desolate. The supplications weren't presented because of any righteousness in the people of Israel, but because Daniel knew the Lord is merciful - slow to anger, but swift to hear. 

It would do good for all Christians in the West to pray a prayer like this one. Western civilisation is crumbling before our very eyes because we are a disobedient people. 

Let's pray for God to send His Holy Spirit in power and majesty, that many may have their eyes opened and see the glories of the Lord!  

 

Passage copied from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel%209%3A3-19&version=NKJV