Encouraged Prayer

“Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” (Ne 4:9 AV)

The statement above tells me two things.  First, it was in the normal course of their lives to pray.  This is evident by the simple word  "nevertheless".  Ezra and Nehemiah had the people pray publicly and privately.  This little group of settlers knew prayer was an integral part of their success.  The wall was not going to be completed unless they prayed.  Second, because of that same word they did not allow the challenge of the adversary to break their pattern of habitual prayer.  The context is the resistance to this project by those who hated the Jews.  There were several attempts to discourage the work.  They forged a letter as though it appeared from the king.  They threatened military action.  They even enticed the remnant to commerce on the LORD’s Day.  Attempt after attempt failed because the people were in the habit of praying.

When hard times come, prayer usually suffers.  You might think just the opposite is true.  But it is not.  When people are overwhelmed, the circumstances of the situation rule their hearts and minds.  We neglect prayer rather than drive towards it.  When disease wreaks havoc on the body, all we can feel are the symptoms.  Our whole being is ruled by something bigger than ourselves.  Our attention is driven inward instead of upward.  When life begins to become expensive, and we do not know how to pay the bills, our minds are driven to emails, mailboxes, and bank statements.  Our hearts are not pointed upward.  When our families are suffering from physical, emotional, or spiritual distress, we are preoccupied with their welfare.  We make phone calls, visits, or go shopping in an attempt to help.  But our prayers are often neglected.  When the news is nothing but bad news, and we fear what might be in the future, we plan, we keep up to date, or we panic.  What we do not do is think to pray.  Prayer is the solution to all these things and more.  Prayer is too often the practice of last resort.

Prayer is the missing key to spiritual success.  Prayer should be a habit.  It should be such a habit that we need not make an event out of it.  "Pray unceasingly" the Apostle tells us.  Prayer is a conversation with God.  God does not need you to pencil Him in.  He is of infinite presence.  He does not need a schedule.  You can go to Him any time of day or night.  He is always available, much like my marriage.  My wife and I do not schedule conversations or rely on lists of topics to cover. Conversations are natural and almost non-stop.  Whenever we are near one another a conversation ensues.  The same should be true with our prayer life.  Our prayer life should be the normal course of our waking moments.  When Nehemiah uses the word nevertheless, he is telling us that prayer was the normal practice of the remnant and that no matter what life threw at them it would never change.  I am going to listen to Nehemiah and emulate the practice of the remnant.  No matter how difficult life might be at any given moment, prayer should never cease.

P.S.  How about those friends and family?  Have you let them know about this blog?  Have you sent them a link to some of you favorite entries?  Don't forget, you can win a $20 gift card if you encourage the most new followers to join us.  Just have them leave a comment referencing your encouragement to follow, and you could be the winner.  Results will be published at the end of the month.