Learning to Pray
Pt.2 Nehemiah’s Confession
Intro:
Last week we started talking about prayer…
How many of you ever prayed the bed time prayer? It was one that my mom had us pray as kids… we even had a plaque on the wall with the prayer on it… I don’t know about you but this prayer used to scare the snot out of me!
Prayer was confusing to me as a kid… especially the Lord’s prayer, I never understood it! It left me confused and uncertain on how to pray… Like many of us when we were kids, I started to look at prayer as a means to get stuff… you know, treat God like Santa! Instead of the Lord’s prayer, I had Steve’s prayer: Dear God, give us today our daily fun and tickets to the amusement park! And lead us not into home work… or chores around the house! But deliver us from the bully. And may my mom not get mad at my report card, for hers is the power and the fury in which I fear! amen! Today, I know that prayer has power, and that through prayer, God does the incredible. But I will still fall into old patterns and pray in ways that afterward I will say to myself, “what did I just say?” It’s like I said last week, the “ I don’t want to think to hard prayer…” Every night I pray for the girls before bed, and every night I say the same thing… Let me ask, how were your prayers this last week? Did you pray? How did it go?
As I said last week, the average Christian struggles with prayer because they find it confusing, and they are uncertain what to even pray.
When we think about prayer, we can sometimes be frightened and don’t even want to attempt it because we are afraid we might mess it up! Or worse, we might offend God! But as we heard last week, God wants to hear from you, he wants to know what is on your heart, he wants to know you and for you to know him.
This week we continue our series on how to pray from a man who did what many thought was impossible, yet with God’s help he accomplished all that he set his mind to do, and he began with a simple prayer of confession and repentance. If you have your bible, turn to Nehemiah 1:4
4As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.5And I said, "O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. 7We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there." 10They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."
Have you ever met those ugly people? The kind that just turn you off, not because of their physical appearance, but because of their attitude? They are the type that always have it worse than you, or better that you! They are ether the victim, or they want to control everything. Nothing nice comes out of their mouths, all they have are complaints, whines, or back bites. Their problem is arrogance. They think that everything is about them, or for them. And if there is one thing that God hates is arrogance in his people!
Nehemiah comes to God in prayer the only way we should ever, humbly. Nehemiah confesses that God is great and mighty, that he alone is the keeper of covenants and is stead fast in love. Nehemiah bows before God as if he were a king, because he is. He is our king, our Lord, and as such he comes to God wrapped in humility. How often do we fail to come before God in humility? Whining? Complaining? Talking bad about others? How often do we come demanding? How often do we come expecting? How often do we come to God looking to justify our actions? To explain ourselves?
Pray must begin with humility, and continue with humility throughout. As Jesus told us in the Lord’s prayer,
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread, 12and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
When you pray, pray with humility, knowing that you speak to the king of the universe.
I have a question, how many of you when you were kids, and you broke something, went and told your parents immediately? How many tried to cover it up? **add illustration here**
It is funny, but since the beginning of time people have been trying to cover up their mistakes… Adam and Eve. And they are still doing it today…
But if you notice in Nehemiah’s prayer that he doesn’t try to cover anything up, instead he is very forthcoming with the sin of the nation of Israel, and even the sin of his family and his himself.
After everything that happened to Israel, Nehemiah doesn’t try to shift the blame to God, he doesn’t try to cover it up, instead he takes full responsibility for the crimes of Israel—he admitted that he was part of the problem.
I think that it is interesting that as a culture, in general we try to shift the blame to someone else, if we burn ourselves while drinking coffee, we blame the maker of the coffee, saying that it was too hot! If we get a speeding ticket, it was the stupid cops fault! If we get fired, we blame the company or the boss. If we get a divorce, it is because she was impossible, or he would never listen to me! It is never our fault.
However, when we pray, we need to remember that God knows everything about us already. You can try to hide, you can try to cover up, but he sees the real you, so you might as well admit your wrongs, you may as well confess. Own up to what you have done and confess your sins, by doing this we keep ourselves humble before God, we keep ourselves honest before God, and more importantly when we openly admit that we have sinned, we can repent of that sin and receive forgiveness.
I talked about those ugly people, but there are also those downer people too… I knew this guy named John, he will tell you ten different ways that his life stinks. If you gave him a brand new car, he would just complain and say that it will just break down, and when it does he will tell you, “I told you so…” no matter what you do or say, they never have joy or hope in their life!
I think the best part of Nehemiah’s prayer is the hope that fills it. Look at vs. 8
8Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there." 10They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man."
Even though everything is wrong with Israel, Nehemiah has hope, he has hope that God is faithful and will not forget his people.
How often in our prayers do we pray for, or even show hope? Most often we spend our time complaining, or looking at all the bad in the world, instead, let us pray for hope. Let us pray for the spread of the gospel. Let us pray that his return is soon! Let us reflect on the hope that we have as Christians. Let us thank God that we do have hope through his son Jesus. When you pray, pray with an attitude of hope, not despair! Because the truth is that God has not forgotten his people, he has promised that he is one day returning, so let us pray for that return!
I understand that sometimes prayer can be hard. But as I said last week, God wants to hear from you. I also realize that we don’t always know how to go about it. So this week I want to challenge you to pray again, using these tools, humility, confession, and hope. Talk to God about your life, come to him with all humility, telling him your sins, and pray for the hope that he has promised.
Keep your prayers simple, honest, but always filled with the hope of God’s promise. Don’t be dismayed by prayer, don’t let it scare you, just do it. Remember, God loves you and wants to hear from you!
