The Passage: Nehemiah 1:4. Additional reading: Ephesians 6:18-20
The Point: The power of prayer
Day one could have gone one of two ways. You either left feeling burdened for God’s Kingdom to be spread throughout the world or you left feeling lousy. Perhaps your burdens and desires don’t align very well with God’s. Maybe you’re entangled in our culture of consumerism where stuff sits on the throne of your heart. Maybe addiction still has a stranglehold on you. Whatever it is, you know in your heart that it needs to change.
There’s the good news. God has given us a powerful tool – PRAYER! Nehemiah’s first step to taking responsibility for his burden was reliance on God through prayer. We shouldn’t start anywhere else. Nothing of eternal impact comes apart from prayer. We won’t get the results we are looking for if we try to storm the gates of hell with a water pistol. We MUST rely on God through prayer, and it’s amazing what happens when we begin to pray. Prayer is not only important for eternal impact outwardly; prayer impacts us inwardly. This is a great encouragement for us!
Yesterday we said information that leads to transformation shows what your heart truly desires. Let me add to that. Information will lead to stagnation apart from prayer. Maybe that’s too many ‘ations for you so let me put it this way: the knowledge you have will remain abstract unless you commune with God in prayer. Prayer is paramount to the transformation process. If we want our burden to be God’s people and God’s Kingdom for God’s glory, we need to speak to God himself. In order for my wife and me to be on the same page, we have to use things called words in a place called time. We have to communicate. I learned quickly in my marriage that it just doesn’t work out well when we don’t communicate. What makes us think our relationship with God is any different?
Processing:
- Read Nehemiah 1. When did Nehemiah pray?
- How important do you think prayer is? Why?
- Does the answer above correlate with your prayer life? Why or why not?
Planning:
- When do you pray? If you don’t have a time, could you section off 5 to 10 minutes a day?
- What is one BIG thing you could begin to ask God to do in South Florida?