Patrick Sbg Moss Just now · Thought for the Day - Dr John White When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven. Nehemiah 1:4 Prayer is not something that can be done fast, like speed reading. Some of the great prayers of the Bible were conceived over a long period of time. Nehemiah, for instance, tells us he prayed for days. Yet the prayer he records can be read aloud in a couple of minutes. Did Nehemiah repeat the prayer again and again for days on end? How do we account for the discrepancy between the length of the prayer and the length of the time he spent in prayer? There can be no doubt that the days of fasting and prayer were days when God was dealing with Nehemiah. The prayer he records is the end result of many days spent wrestling with the problem before God. They were days of weeping, of bewilderment, days in which the Spirit of God was laying the finger on Nehemiah’s own life. They were days during which Nehemiah’s confusion turned to fear as God exposed him to ideas that Nehemiah did not wish to entertain. Then came the lucidity as he accepted God’s will for him. In the end the onl Thought for the Day - Dr John White y specific request he made was that God would protect him from the king’s anger. Like Nehemiah we must go to God with our problems and wait in his presence. We are to express our concerns fully and tell him of our bewilderment. We are to tell him, too, that we know he hears and that we cannot understand what is happening. God never mocks people who approach him this way. He is patient and gentle, and he takes his time. Occasionally he may clarify matters quickly, but more often the process is slow. God has aims in mind beside the immediate issue that concerns us. He wants to teach us about himself. The very problems we bring to him serve as the basis of a lesson through which we will be changed, our view of him will become larger and the goals we are to seek and ourselves will be made clearer. Prayer is a great mystery, Father. You want to hear from us and even act on what we say. I don’t always understand why you would do this. But you do. And more. You change me as we talk. And I don’t understand how this happens either. It is a mystery I praise you for. Amen.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 01:31:24 +0000
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