A 'Nevertheless' Moment

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

We have had an evangelist with us this week.  Last night, he preached on the times the word ‘nevertheless’ occurs in the scriptures.  Not all of them, mind you.  Or we would still be in church this morning.  Rather, he picked out four times the word is used.  The word represents a point of decision that defines the person from that event forward.  Above, we see one of Nehemiah’s ‘nevertheless’ moments.  The enemies of Israel were doing everything they could to end the construction of the wall around Jerusalem.  They even sent letters containing lies back to Mede, accusing Israel of ordaining a king among them.  They accused the Jews of rebuilding the wall so they could reestablish the kingdom as it once stood under David and Solomon.  These were all lies.  Sanballat and Tobiah did everything they could to frustrate Nehemiah and end the work.  Nehemiah, nevertheless, went to pray, made his stand, and left it with God.  He was not dis-swayed from what God called him and the nation to do.  They can take their best shot, but they were going on for God.  Prayer was the strength that kept them on that wall.  Nehemiah’s nevertheless moment was his instinct for prayer.

Prayer should be a pattern of life and habitually instinctual.  Prayer is not something we must set aside and check off when accomplished.  Prayer is having a conversation with God.  Just as my wife and I do not plan our conversations, so too should the prayer life of the believer be.  It should be instinctual, every present, and sincere.  I have to chuckle when I hear couples say they need to schedule a date night.  To me, that is funny.  I know what they mean.  They need to get away from the kids and make it a time exclusively for them.  Those times are needed.  But life happens and when the context of interaction between a husband and wife is around normal events, it is no less real than a candlelit dinner and a table for two.  Yes, these things are needed.  But the conversation they have on the way to pay the water bill is no less real.  Their relationship is a twenty-four-hour a day interaction, whether it involves roses or rhubarb.  It is no less real if they are folding laundry, watching something on TV, or on a couple’s retreat in the romantic hills of the Appalachian Mountains.  The more instinctual the conversation, the more real and sincere it is.

Prayer should be planned.  That is what I am doing right now.  In a moment, when the words stop appearing on the paper, prayer will take its place.  But if we are to have a nevertheless moment of prayer that forever changes our lives, we have to treat prayer as instinctual and not merely planned.  Sure, I plan on talking to my Lisa when she comes home from work.  There will be mutual things we need to accomplish today.  But the vast majority of our conversations are not planned.  They are instinctual.  They happen.  The same should be true of our prayer life.  There should be thirty minutes a day, and that is it.  No.  The Bible says to pray unceasingly.  That is instinctual prayer.  It is a God-consciousness that never ends.  It doesn’t matter if we have a list in front of us, or we are simply thanking Him for the beautiful day ahead.  Prayer should be planned.  But it should be more instinctual than it is planned.  If our prayer life was instinctual, then it would be far more difficult to fall into sin.  If we are in the habit of praying unceasingly, then falling into sin would require we break that fellowship first.  However, if we have compartmentalized our prayer life by a schedule, then we have already broken fellowship with God and sin becomes much easier.  Our nevertheless moment should be the permanent decision to make prayer instinctual!  That is what Nehemiah did, and the wall was completed.