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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Faith and Nehemiah

I love the story of Nehemiah the eunuch who served the king as a cup bearer. The love and passion he had for his country Israel just makes me think of Jesus and His love and passion for us. Nehemiah was so distraught about the condition of the walls and gates of Israel that he wanted to approach the king, but knew if he went before the king without an invitation the chances of surviving were slim. So he wept and mourned for days fasting and praying to our God. Here is his prayer....
Nehemiah 1:5-11 NASB                                           Google Image
 5I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,6let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father's house have sinned.7"We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.8"Remember the word which 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 those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.' 10"They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand 11"O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man " Now I was the cupbearer to the king. 

I love this full hearted prayer and it seems so does God. Nehemiah was chosen to seve King Artaxerxes some wine and while he was serving the king, the king noticed that Nehemiah's face was sad and asked him what his trouble was. Now this made Nehemiah scared because the king could have him killed on the spot if he so choose, but God was with Nehemiah so he told the king his problem of how he was worried for the Israelites living without walls and gates. The king seemed pretty concerned of this, maybe it had something to do with his queen sitting beside him and he was showing off to her, (isn't it neat how God orchestrates things), so he asked Nehemiah how much time he would need and what he needed to complete this job. The king released Nehemiah from his job, giving him letters of passage, officers of the army and horsemen. The story goes on to tell us how Nehemiah went around coaxing the Israelites to build the wall and fix the gates.

This took really big faith on Nehemiah's part as he could have easily lost his life being in the king's presence with a sad demeanor and then going on to tell the king, why he was gloomy. We need to have this kind of faith that God is with us, especially after we have prayed to Him concerning a matter. 

Just yesterday my husband, kids and I were having a dinner for my husband's secretaries and their families and I went on to tell them why we don't have a Christmas tree, because the cat's pull them down. Truth, but not the real reason. We don't have a Christmas tree because it follows the tradition of honouring false god's. A few years ago I decided to find out why we put up trees during the Christmas season only to find out, to my horror, that this tradition started way back during the reign of Nimrod to honour the sex god's which really is Satan in disguise. I never knew this, so after talking to the kids and the hubby we decided that our family would never again put up a tree, instead we put up a manger and a cross. Well, yesterday I had the perfect opportunity to explain to a family, that really doesn't know much about God, our reason why we don't put up a tree and I blew it! I was embarrassed and my daughter gave me a very disappointed look. Not only did I fail God, I failed my family.  


Oh to have the faith that Nehemiah had, to risk life for the sake of God's heart! It is so easy to slip into how the world does things especially when we are around people who are not believers but this is not what our God wants. He wants us to stick out like sore thumbs. :) Take the step to be different than the world and He promises us that He will be right there with us supporting us. Our God is great and His work is easy if only we have faith.


Please pray for us this week as my family and I are heading out to the east cost to spend some time with my side of the family. This is a hard time for us as this time last year my father passed away and I really want to share my faith with my brother and sister but they are not very interested in my belief. 


God Bless,
<><
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9 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this great post!

    I will pray for our God's peace to be with you and all!!! God I ask of You to just pour out Your blessings upon Child of God and her family in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

    "And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Exodus 33: 14 (KING JAMES VERSION)

    God's Blessings to you all this Christmas!!!

    Your friend and bro,

    Lon

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  2. Lon, thank you for this prayer and these verses. I appreciate your fellowship it means a lot knowing there are people praying for me.
    God bless,
    <><

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  3. @Lon. Oops! Not verses but verse! Thanks!

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  4. I love this post sister!! I never knew about the christmas trees, I know now thanks to you!
    I dislike the focus that is placed on materialism and the all important "tree" at christmas...the birth of Jesus is often missed entirely and this is terribly saddening.

    My dear sweet friend don't beat yourself up because you missed one opportunity...your light shines afar...all the way here to Australia and I am sure to many other places.
    I will pray for you and your family sweet sister that you will know God's peace during this time and that God in His gentle way will guide you in the ways that you may share your faith with your brother and his family, that you will have a confidence about you and you will shine the light of God into the shadows of the darkness wherever it lurks. I will pray that your brother and his family will be receptive and have open hearts or that our loving Father will touch them in some way through you that they may come to know Him as you know Him. I know God will hold you close to His heart sister and comfort you in this hard time, He will wipe your tears.

    God Bless you my dear friend...

    Much love...

    Lisa

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  5. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us! This is one of my FAVORITE books in the Bible; I especially love chapter 9.

    Don't be discouraged by what happened the other day! We are all human and we all make mistakes, but GOD still chooses to use us as His vessels--for His glory. We're not perfect, but thanks be to God! ...He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. :)

    Keep pressing on! I will be sure to remember your family in my prayers during this time.

    Blessings,
    Taylor

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  6. @Lisa,
    Thank you for your kind words. It is not right for us to beat ourselves up when we miss an opportunity to share about God. I just need to pick up and continuing putting one foot in front of the other.
    Thanks for the prayers for my family. It can be tough for us when it gets close to home, but there is nothing tough for our God!!

    Thanks for the love it is much appreciated. :)

    God Bless you too my friend,
    <><

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  7. @Taylor,
    Nehemiah is one of my favorite stories as well. The simple way he prays really speaks to me.

    Thanks for your encouragement! You are so right, we are not perfect but thanks to God He still chooses to use us.

    I appreciate your prayers. I love walking under the covering of prayers.

    God Bless and thanks for leaving a comment.
    <><

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  8. Hi Child of God -

    Thank you for writing this piece.
    Your heart-felt expressions are appreciated.

    I agree with you and some others here...Nehemiah is one of my favorites, as well. About two years ago, I wrote a piece about his ministry.

    I love what you stated, "Take a step to be different than the world..." Yes, we should steadfastly have the characteristics of JESUS.

    Note: Where in the Bible, please, does it state that Nehemiah was eunuch?

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  9. Hi lioneagle,
    Thank you for your comments!
    As far as I know, there is no reference in the Bible for Nehemiah being a eunuch. I learned this in Bible study with our pastor. He said that during the era, any close servant of the king most likely had to be a eunuch because they had close contact with the kings concubines and wives. Since the king didn't want any 'issues' to deal with most of close male servants were eunuchs. This is a controversial topic as there really is no Biblical proof of this, but reason does lead us to believe that Nehemiah was. I personally believe that Nehemiah was a eunuch because he was a cup bearer to the king, although to try and support this I would need to do some deep research into the time era.
    I hope this answer satisfies your question.

    God Bless,
    <><

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God Bless,
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