Moments to Ponder
Pondering is a lost practice today.
The idea that we might actually take a few moments to think deeply about anything seems indulgent in our busy, full schedules. Yet, our souls crave rest and space to breathe, process our lives, choices, and walk with Jesus. I invite you to join me fora few moments to take in Scripture and take away a few thoughts to ponder throughout your day.
Moments to Ponder
Episode 162: The Quiet Work of Prayer
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We trace Nehemiah’s journaled prayer from praise to yielding and show how this pattern brings clarity and courage for big decisions. Betsy shares her own yearlong discernment and invites prayer requests as we practice asking God for favor and walking in step with his promises.
• praise that reframes fear and centers on God’s character
• confession that owns sin and breaks shame
• remembering God’s promises that fuel resilient hope
• asking boldly for specific favor and next steps
• yielding control while acting in faith
• Nehemiah’s role as cupbearer and timely influence
• praying together for endurance and open doors
Is there something that I could be praying for in your life? You can use the text link through the podcast notes, or if you're watching, you can leave a note below. And I will pray.
Welcome And Purpose
0:41 Wrestling With Big Decisions
2:33 Reading Nehemiah’s Prayer
5:10 Praise And Perspective In Prayer
7:16 Confession And Freedom
9:16 Remembering God’s Promises
11:20 Asking For Favor With The King
13:29 The Role Of The Cupbearer
16:00 God’s People In Places Of Influence
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Hi friends, I'm Betsy, and I want to welcome you to Moments to Ponder. If you're interested in learning more from the Bible, but sometimes struggle to know how it connects to your everyday life, you've come to the right place. This podcast is designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word and take away something to ponder. I pray our time together will be an encouragement for you. This is episode 162. Have you ever had something on your mind that you kept ruminating over? Maybe a big purchase like a home or a job change that required a lot of thinking. Or maybe you just seemed to go over and over and over a conversation you had yesterday. When I felt it was time to retire from my job of 28 years, it was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. I thought about it for months. It was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to be clear about God's direction, not my own thinking, but his. I spent months talking with my boss about it, discussing ideas and what I needed to do as I transitioned out. It's honestly probably the biggest decision of my life. I was stepping into the unknown, trying to be obedient to God, and it was scary. But it wasn't just that. It was also because I knew my decision would affect a lot of people. To say I prayed about it would be an understatement. I prayed a lot, like a year of prayer. I prayed for direction and discernment, courage, wisdom, grace, all the things. I prayed over details and processes. In fact, I wrote many of them in my journal. Nehemiah, as we read last time, is heartbroken over the people and the city wall of Jerusalem. And as he processes his heartache, he comes before the Lord in prayer because he has a big decision ahead of him. As we continue in chapter one, we read Nehemiah's prayer in his journal. This is most likely a mixture of multiple prayers put together as he only records one, but it represents hours of time with God. We're going to read it fully through, and then we'll go back and take a deeper look. And we start with verse four in chapter one. Then I said, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commandments. Listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Please, remember what you told your servant Moses. If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored. The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. O Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me. In those days I was the king's cupbearer. We'll come back to that last line, but let's take a look at this prayer of Nehemiah. There are pieces in here of the Torah, echoes of 1 Kings and Isaiah, even words of Moses as Nehemiah prays. And in this prayer, he's showing us something. He's giving us a way that we can pray. He begins by acknowledging who he's praying to, which is important, and who he, Nehemiah, whom he is. Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands. Listen to my prayer. This sets the tone. God is awesome, great, faithful, with unfailing love, the God of heaven, almighty and holy. And God loves those who love him. Nehemiah knows that he is one that God loves. Have you ever noticed, if you're someone who prays, that when we acknowledge the majesty and greatness of God, our issues suddenly feel smaller in the light of who God is? When we remember that we're loved by our incredible God, it's a way for us to keep everything in perspective. And Nehemiah is doing this. Then he says, listen to my prayer. And in my version of the Bible, there's an exclamation point. But the word here isn't a command to God. The original word means more asking, beseeching. Basically, he's saying, Please hear my prayer, coming across in humility and dependence. We get the impression that that's what Nehemiah is feeling. And then he continues, look down and see me praying night and day for your people, Israel. Night and day he's praying. He's lamenting here. Nehemiah has never even been to Jerusalem. He didn't face the problems the people of Jerusalem are facing. He's an important official. He's an upper class guy. He could have continued to enjoy his life, serve the king, and forget all about what was happening hundreds of miles away. But he didn't. In his prayer, we see his reverence for God and his care of others. He had a heart for the Jews and their struggles. This affected him. Now it's a big challenge, and he knows that only God can really save Jerusalem. We continue in verse 6. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Did you hear all those pronouns? I, we, our. Nehemiah isn't saying they have sinned. They've been wrong. He's confessing his own sin and that of his family. He doesn't give any excuses. He's confessing that they have not been obedient. He's praying his confession. He's not standing in front of a crowd or yelling it to the world. He's just sharing his sin with the one who can forgive him. Confession has a way of bringing dark things into the light. And when the light hits them, they dissipate because light overcomes darkness. Sin loses its power in light. It can be daunting to think of confessing the sin in our lives. We feel shame and fear, yet the wonder of light and forgiveness that comes brings freedom from the shame and fear that had a hold on us through sin. And as we realize we're forgiven and loved, we can stand in awe of that freedom. Throughout my years of ministry, nights of confession have been the catalyst to discovering what freedom in Jesus can be. And I've learned that after true confession, there's an eagerness to know what to do next. Now that we're free, what can we do? How can we live differently for the Lord? And that's kind of where Nehemiah is. He's confessed, and now he has a request about what could be next. Verse 8. He says, Please remember what you told your servant Moses. If you're unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you're exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored. Nehemiah is remembering the promise made way back in Leviticus and Deuteronomy to Moses. He knows God promised that if they return to him and obey his commands, he will bring them back to Jerusalem. Again, God doesn't need a reminder, but it keeps Nehemiah focused on the hope of restoration. I have found the same to be true. When I remember the promises of God, it helps me because I know God is a God who keeps his promises. So when I read Matthew 28 and hear, I am with you always, it's a promise I know I can believe in. Or from Mark 10, all things are possible with God. When I pray these promises, asking God to walk in these ways with me, I know I'm speaking with a God who keeps his word. Okay, verse 10. The prayer continues. So he's putting them in their place of honor and respect of God. Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those of us whose light in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it in his heart to be kind to me. This is the closing of his prayer. See us, see me, rescue us again. Grant me favor with the king. Through this we see where Nehemiah has come as he's prayed. He needs to go before the king. He's not asking for someone else to take on the burden of Jerusalem. He's asking for himself to be able to do something. He needs to speak with the king about it, to make a request of the king of Persia, the most powerful man in the world at the time. But how will Nehemiah get before the king? Well, that's where the last verse in the chapter comes in. Nehemiah writes, I was the king's cupbearer. Now, this is just a little sentence, but it is a mouthful. As cupbearer, one of Nehemiah's duties was to choose and taste the king's wine to make certain it wasn't poisoned before it was given to the king. Every time he tasted wine, he was saying, I sacrificed my life for yours. Granted, this was his position, he was a servant, but this position would have had the true confidence of the king. It would have been a respected place. As cupbearer, he also had household duties. He oversaw staff, even advising the king at times. Kind of think of it like the head butler in Downton Abbey. Except this was a position that acquired wealth, was made privy to private conversations within the royal family, and would have had contact with that family. Earlier in the first verses of this chapter, Nehemiah mentioned that he was in Susa and that it was November, December at the time. Now, Susa was the main palace for the king, but for the winter, the king would travel to a different palace where it was warmer. Now, as the king wasn't in residence, Nehemiah had time to pray as he waited for Artaxerxes to return, and then he had to wait for his turn in the rotation of serving the king. Now, when we begin chapter two in our next episode, we'll see that four months pass, and as his time to serve approaches, his prayer is more urgent, which is the ending of this prayer before us. Give me mercy and favor from the king. I find it fascinating how God brings specific people into a place of influence to world powers for the protection of his people. Joseph in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Esther in Persia. They each played a role in saving or protecting God's people. And now for Nehemiah, it's his turn. As we look at this section today, we see a man persistent in prayer, humbly asking God to remember his promises and seeking God's intervention. He's in a unique position to ask the king for help, yet he doesn't assume anything. He knows that only God can make this all come together. Humility and persistence, two characteristics of Nehemiah that we can aspire to as well. So from this section today in Nehemiah's Prayer, we see a form of prayer that is still used today. He may not have called it what we do. We use an acronym P-R-A-Y, which stands for Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield. We see praise when he starts with, Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfeeling love. And then repent. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, my own family and I have sinned. And then the ask. Please remember what you told your servant Moses. Please grant me success today before the king. And finally, why yield? The humility behind the prayer is evident throughout the whole thing. Dear one, just as God heard Nehemiah, he hears you. Dallas Willard writes that prayer is simply talking to God about what we're doing together. Think about that. It's talking to God about what we are doing together. Remembering that he has to be incorporated into the whole. And repent. Keep your heart clear before him. Forgiveness from him is infinite. Ask for what you need. Which, of course, is ask. Ask for what's on your heart. Jesus tells us to. What do you need him to walk with you in that you can do together? And never forget the why. All prayer requires yielding in some way. And I have found that yielding can be the hardest part because it forces me to turn it all over to God. And sometimes I just want to control it. But yielding gives me the heart to receive whatever he has in store, knowing that it is his best for me. I don't know if you noticed it in that last little part of the section for today. But Nehemiah said, us. Others were praying with Nehemiah. He wasn't alone in this prayer. He had asked others to pray with him, for him, so that doors would be opened as he brings his requests to the king. So I want to lay it out there. Is there something that I could be praying for in your life? You can use the text link through the podcast notes, or if you're watching, you can leave a note below. And I will pray. There's power when we pray with each other. God does hear you. He loves you. Sometimes it requires praying for a month, sometimes a year. But God is at work. He promises that he is with us always. Amen.