I've previously written about the opposition that had arisen against the building of the wall and repair of its gates in my prayers here and here.

Today I'd like us to focus on our need to continue in prayer day and night as we work because just as was happening in the time of Nehemiah, opposition to God's work is continuing day and night. Throughout the book of Nehemiah we see how the enemies of Israel kept coming back again and again to discourage and dissuade the people of God from the work of building and repair. That's particularly apparent in Nehemiah 4:

Nehemiah 4:6  So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

7  But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8  And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. 9  And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

10  In Judah it was said, “The strength of those who bear the burdens is failing. There is too much rubble. By ourselves we will not be able to rebuild the wall.” 11  And our enemies said, “They will not know or see till we come among them and kill them and stop the work.” 12  At that time the Jews who lived near them came from all directions and said to us ten times, “You must return to us.” 13  So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. 14  And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

Notice that the wall had already been built to half its height, and notice how the people had a mind to work (after being mocked prior to this time). At this point there is real visible progress, and even so the people began to lose perspective, they became fearful and began to despair and wonder if the work could really be completed all due to the continuing attacks of the enemy. I've known that feeling. Have you?

This is a real reminder to us of our need to encourage one another (I wrote on this here on my other blog yesterday) and to continue on in prayer as we work, not only at the beginning of our work but throughout the entire span of our work (which means we ought always to be praying for our work on earth is not completed until our days here on earth are completed!). We must not ever sit back and relax and let down our guard – and we must especially persevere in prayer once we begin to see answers to our prayers. The devil is ready to step in, take advantage when we let down our guard and take a foothold wherever and whenever we give him an opening to do so!

15  When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work. 16  From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17  who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 18  And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. 19  And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. 20  In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

Once more we see here the continuing guard, the day and night diligence we must have as we work, which includes a day and night covering in prayer. So often we can get busy, busy, busy with our work and we neglect to persevere in the necessary work of prayer.

21  So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. 22  I also said to the people at that time, “Let every man and his servant pass the night within Jerusalem, that they may be a guard for us by night and may labor by day.” 23  So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand.

The work of the devil and his minions is 24/7. That's why Paul told us to pray without ceasing...

Holy and everlasting God,

Make us more and more aware of our need to pray without ceasing. We confess we so often busy ourselves with working and doing and we so easily forget the work of prayer. We think that prayer is a secondary thing, but it is a primary thing. Prayer must undergird, guard and surround all we do. The devil is prowling waiting for an opportune time to come and attack us as we work. May we be steadfast, immovable and abounding in all the work You call us to, and that work includes the work of prayer. May we take heed, lest we fall. When we think we are strong, when we think we can do all things, remind us we have no power, no reserves and no protection unless we continue to root all we do in prayer, that we can do nothing apart from You, but praise God, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! We can build, and we must build, but we must continue to set a guard and protection in prayer. We can plant Your gospel seed, and we must plant, but as we plant, we must continue to water it with prayer.

May we be like the watchmen described in Isaiah, may we never give you rest but continue to intercede to your for guidance, protection and help.

All the day...All the night...

You know our spirits are willing but our flesh is weak.

Yet we know enough to know we must continue in prayer.

Strengthen us, O Lord, to pray, through Your eternal, omnipotent Spirit who dwells in us. You are the God who never ceases in prayer in heaven. You are the God who never ceased to search after us while we were lost sheep. You are the God who is from everlasting to everlasting. You are the God who has the power of an indestructible life. Apart from You we cannot even desire to pray all the day and all the night. So certainly then apart from You we cannot even begin to pray all the day and all the night. These things are possible for us through Your life which dwells in us.

We confess we find time for all sorts of other things, but seem to find little time for prayer. Father, forgive us for quenching Your Holy Spirit and grieving You. Our Father, forgive us for Jesus' sake. We are not our own, but we are Yours. Our lives are hid with Christ in God. Therefore help us to set our minds on things above, to remember we are Your ambassadors here sent to build the wall wherever You send us and we cannot do so apart from continuing in prayer day and night.

Whom have we in heaven but You? You are are guide. You are our protector. You are our help. We confess we often forget we are totally dependent on You for all things. All things. We can do nothing apart from You. Jesus Christ is our life. Your Holy Spirit is our breath. Our Father, we are Your children. We ask You to remind us when we forget, when we begin working and have a zeal to work, but when we do not continue to abide in You and continue instant in prayer. We confess we need Your zeal for prayer.

When we do not draw our strength from You in prayer, our labor will be in vain, for it is not being done in You. Forgive us, O Lord, when we forget, and draw us back to You once again, take us to our knees in utter dependence on You, the Chief Shepherd. How can the sheep do or know anything apart from the Lamb who bought us, the Lamb whose lives indwells us, the Lamb who is seated at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven interceding for us? Forgive us, good Shepherd, when we forget You. May we continue in prayer without ceasing. May we continue in prayer day and night at Your throne of grace. Lord Jesus, You are continuing there on our behalf. Our Father, we know You are waiting to hear our prayers. Your Spirit longs to pray along with us there.

We come to You, our Father, in the Name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit. While we continue to work strengthen us to continue in prayer without ceasing, to continue in prayer day and night...all the day, all the night...so we might see Your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So Your Kingdom might come in greater measure here in our own lives, in our churches, in our communities, in our countries, to the ends of the earth, as well as in the blogging communities of Xanga and Revelife. We long for the Church to be a praise in the earth. We long to see the earth filled with Your glory, O Lord. Amen.

Continuing in my series of reflections on prayer...

Over the past week or so, I've posted a few prayers based on Nehemiah (please see here, here and here), and I've been continuing to ponder Nehemiah 2:5:

That made me think of Isaiah's call from the Lord:

And I heard...

Nehemiah also had heard God calling Him... In Nehemiah 2:12, we read Nehemiah refer to what "my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem."

When was the last time You heard God?

How can we hear God calling us?

How can we hear the voice of the Lord if our prayer time is full of our speaking to God?

Do we ever give Him time to speak to us?

How can we be receptive to what God is desiring to put into our hearts for His people apart from sitting silently before Him?

How can His heart's desire be implanted into our hearts apart from our cultivating listening ears before Him?

So often we think of prayer as our talking to God, a one-way street. Of course, we are to speak to God in prayer; yes, that is part of the blood-bought privilege of prayer, but let us not forget that prayer also involves our listening to God. Prayer is intimate fellowship and communion with the living God and that is a two-way communication. Certainly the living God wants to communicate to us. Certainly our God has something He wants to speak to us, does He not? He is God after all? How much time do we sit and listen to other people (conversations, messages, blogs, books, sermons), but how little time do we spend listening to our God?

How can we know God's will if we are not listening for His voice as we pray and read His Word? If we continue to speak and speak and speak, but we are never still or quiet before Him, if we never sit before Him silently, how will we hear His Holy Spirit speaking His word and His calling into our hearts? I know you are here because you have already heard Him speaking to you, that He has already been drawing you to more intimate communion with Him. I am praying He might still our souls and give us ears to hear Him, to hear His voice so we might know how He wants to send each of us...He has redeemed us so we might walk in good works He has ordained for us. O, may we not waste our lives in walking in works to which He has not called us! I am praying He would make clear to each of us what holy ambition He has for each of us. Yours will be different from mine, certainly, but let us all turn our ears to Him and listen to Him so we might hear and respond in obedience to His still small voice when He is speaking to us.

There is much rebuilding to be done in His Church. You know I am burdened for the state of the Church in much the same way Nehemiah was burdened for the people of God and the city of Jerusalem. My prayer is that as you read and reflect on these things, God would put a desire in you to go away and shut yourself into your closet and listen to Him...really listen...

I am continuing to pray He would raise up laborers for the harvest. We are all laborers called to His harvest. May He give each of you listening ears and a circumcised heart to hear and obey Him with joy, for the edification of His Church all to His glory.

~Karen

I Samuel 1:1  Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

2  At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. 3  The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.

4  Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” 5  and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

6  And the LORD called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7  Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

8  And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the young man. 9  Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10  And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

Lord, You have taught us to pray.
Lord, teach us to pray again.
We are Your children only by Your love, mercy and grace.
We are not our own, we have been bought with a price, Your precious blood.
We confess we so often begin to live to ourselves.
Forgive us when we forget You have a holy calling on each of our lives.
We confess we so often speak to You and so seldom listen to You.
Forgive us for speaking when we should have been silent.
Still our hearts and souls before You.
Give us ears to hear You.
Give us ears to hear You like Your servants Nehemiah, Isaiah and Samuel.
We are Your servants, O Lord.
Our lives are not our own.
You have purchased us.
We know You have saved us so we might walk in good works by Your power, to Your glory.
We know the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.
We have seen the ruins.
We are mourning here.
Sometimes we don't know where to begin the ruins are so great, both in our own hearts, not to mention in the Church.
Open our ears, Lord, so we might hear Your voice over our own voice and the voices of the world and the devil.
We love You.
We love Your Church.
We know our love is small but we pray You would increase our love for You and Your Church.
We are Yours to do with as You will.
We offer ourselves to You.
Do with us as You will for the sake of Your Church, for the sake of Your Name, for Your glory alone.
Open our ears to hear.
Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening.
Put into our hearts the holy ambition You have for each of us to serve You.
Circumcise our hearts to desire to obey Your word to us.
We are trusting You will equip us with everything we need to do Your will and work what is pleasing in Your sight (Heb. 13:
Amen.

Continuing on with another prayer from Nehemiah. (You may also wish to read through/pray my previous prayers here and here.) This incident in Nehemiah 2 takes place about four months after Nehemiah first heard of the state of Jerusalem and the exiles who'd returned from there: “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire”  (Nehemiah 1:4).

Nehemiah 2:1  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. 2  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. 3  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?” 4  Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5  And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”

James 1:22  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

I John 3:16  By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17  But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Lord God, You have already taught us to pray...
Yet we are so slow to learn...
Father, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.
Though we are slow to learn we come to You and ask us to teach us again...

Our Father,

How often do we hear of a need, but then soon forget? How often are we like those people in the James passage who hear but then go away and forget?

Like Nehemiah,
we have heard of the trouble and shame in the Church,
we have seen the broken down wall and gates which have been destroyed by fire,
we have been burdened to pray and fast...
but then we have gone away and forgotten what we had seen.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Your Spirit has shown us the ruins in the Church.
We could only see them as You opened our eyes to see.
Your Spirit has burdened us and called us to pray.
We could only pray because You opened our ears to hear You.
But then we have gone away and forgotten what we have seen and heard

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Burden us again.
Open our eyes.
Open our ears.
Open our hearts.
Give us a new vision of Your holiness.
Show us once again the ruins in each of our lives and in Your Church today.
We are in great trouble and shame yet today.
Should we not still be burdened?
Should we not still be sad?
Make us intercessors after Your heart.
God forbid that we do not pray for ourselves and for Your people.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

O, Redeemer,
We are Your people but we continue to be in great trouble and shame.
You have seen our great trouble and shame.
Surely You are burdened and sad today.
Surely You are grieved.
Surely Your Spirit has been quenched.
Increase our love for You.
Increase our love for Your people.
May we not love in word but in deed and truth.
May we return to our closets and continue to intercede for Your Church.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Loving Father,
You loved not only in word but in deed.
You loved us and sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for us while we were sinners.
The Lamb of God laid down His life for us to take away our sins.
He rendered Himself up for us as an offering for our sin.
He gave His all for us.
You have purchased us with His precious blood to live to You.
We are not our own, we have been bought with a price.
May we honor and love You with our all.
Put into us a willing heart.
May the desires of Christ be our delight.
May we love You and love the Your people like You.
May we love not only in word but in deed.
Make us willing to give all for You, to love like You have loved us.
May we not forget what we have seen.
May we be doers of the word and not hearers only.
Send us as You will.
May we walk in the way of our Savior.
May we lay down our lives, rather than try to save them.
May we render ourselves up to You.
May we give our all for You.
Use us as You will to rebuild the city, the city of Jerusalem, Your Church.
Send us and use us how and where You will so Your Church might be rebuilt.
Send us and use us how and where You will so Your Name might be a praise and glory in Your Church.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.