Prayer pointers from Nehemiah

"In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king.  Now I had not been sad in his presence.  And the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick?  This is nothing but sadness of the heart.'  Then I was very much afraid.  I said to the king, 'Let the king live forever!  Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?'  Then the king said to me, 'What are you requesting?'  So I prayed to the God of heaven."

-Nehemiah 2:1-4

If you're familiar with the Old Testament books of Ezra, Nehemiah and several of the prophets, you will know that these record the time after God's prophesied judgment on the Israelites had been fulfilled through the factions of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia.  Ezra, just before Nehemiah, records the first wave of Israelite captives who are allowed to return home to Jerusalem to rebuild - decreed by the Persian King Cyrus.  Nehemiah is a record of the returning third wave of people.

In Nehemiah's record of events, he feels a deep burden to help rebuild Jerusalem which lies in ruins.  A well-known instance from his account is the commissioning to rebuild the wall, an event upon which many sermons have been preached.   Nehemiah finds himself elevated to the status of cupbearer for King Artaxerxes at the point of his writing, a job which typically brought a strong bond between the person and the king because the cupbearer was responsible for tasting wine and/or other drinks to deem them safe before the king would drink.  The cupbearer literally risked his life for the king regularly.

On this particular day, Nehemiah brought the cup of wine to King Artaxerxes like he always did, but this time he was visibly sad and depressed.  When the king pressed Nehemiah about it, Nehemiah shared his heart - "I'm sad because my homeland and our city is destroyed."  The people had finally been freed to return to the place they had called home - it had been 70 years!  Finally, they were back, but only to find the place they once called home utterly destroyed and in ruins.  When Nehemiah got word of this, it broke his heart.  All he knew to do was cry, fast and pray for "many days."  Have you ever been at that point before?

I want to focus in on a type of prayer Nehemiah, and many others throughout Scripture, employed here in a desperate, quick point in his life.  He had been asked by the king what was wrong with him and what his request was.  This was Nehemiah's big chance to share his burden with the king!  He only has a moment to respond, as the king's time was valuable and, quite frankly, it would have been quite an odd scene for Nehemiah to ask for a timeout and drop to his knees in a deep, long prayer in front of the king.  Nehemiah had only a moment, a split second, and we're told that he prayed.....

How did he do that?

When you think of prayer, what generally comes to mind?  Most of us think of being in a church building.  We think of 'real' prayer happening in churches on Sundays.  Or, we may think of 'real' prayer needing to take place in our 'prayer closet' at home, in complete solitude and privacy so as not to be disturbed by the world.  We tend to lock prayer into a location.  Prayer must take place in a special place, right?  Or what about length?  We tend to believe that a 'good prayer that God honors and hears' is one like Deacon Bob prayed last Sunday, where he spent what seemed to be 30 minutes pouring his heart out to God.  We believe that 'real' prayer must be a long prayer.  We tend to think that 'real' and effective prayer must contain long theological words, religious-sounding phrases and a hearty "In Jesus name, Amen!" at the end.  Although these things aren't wrong, in and of themselves, they aren't always necessary.  Let's look back at Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is standing before the king, he has just a second, and his big opportunity is right before his eyes.  Instead of jumping on the opportunity without consulting God, though, what does he do?  He shoots a quick prayer to God.  We don't know what he says.  It could have been something as simple as "Lord, help me." in the privacy of his own mind.  No audible words were uttered.  There was no kneeling at an altar.  There was no time to bow his head and close his eyes.  He simply looked at the king, heard the question slip from his slips, and he shot a split-second prayer to God before responding.  

Did you know its 'ok' to pray quick prayers to God?  As a matter of fact, it may even be of greater influence on your life as a Christian to pray these quick prayers throughout the day, instead of trying to plan for one large prayer at the end when you're exhausted, and of course this is better than missing prayer all together until the next major life crisis.  

The "Prince of Preachers" Charles Spurgeon shared that these types of prayers "are of great advantage to people who are hard-pressed in business" and are "suitable to some people of a special temperament who could not pray for a long time....whose minds are rapid and quick."  Spurgeon further adds, "God does not hear us because of the length of our prayer, but because of the sincerity of it....These prayers are commendable because they are truly spiritual.  Wordy prayers may also be windy prayers."  How can Spurgeon come to such a conclusion about a type of prayer that seems so shallow?  He says, "This kind of prayer is free from any suspicion that it is prompted by the corrupt motive of being offered to please men.....The habit of offering these brief prayers would also check your confidence in yourself.  It would show your dependence on God.  It would keep you from getting worldly."

With all that's been said, I want to encourage you to make it a regular practice of praying quick, in-the-moment prayers to God throughout your daily living.  We truly "need Thee every hour" of every day, so why not demonstrate that truth through the life of continual, "never-ceasing" prayer (1 Thess. 5:17)?  Making this a regular practice in our lives will bring us inexplicable peace and strength as well as keeping us connected with our Lord, which will keep us humble and relying on Him.  This is the place we all should want to be - humbly near the Father at all times.