Yesterday I posted a prayer that we might gather together as one man to hear God's word based on Nehemiah 8:1-3. I'd like to continue on with that passage, and have us focus and reflect on the final portion of verse 3: And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Nehemiah 8:1  And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. 2  So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3  And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

Proverbs 2:
1  My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2  making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3  yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4  if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5  then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 4:
20  My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21  Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22  For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23  Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24  Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25  Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26  Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27  Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

Our Father,

We know that apart from Your Spirit's working in our hearts, our human tendency is to be inattentive to Your words! Yet we are Your children, born of Your Spirit. It is Your desire that we be attentive to Your words and love Your words. Make our ears attentive to Your words! Give us a love for Your words! Give us a thirst for the living Water and a hunger for the true Bread from heaven!

We are barraged day in and day out with so many words: spoken, written and sung words. We confess that we are attentive to so many, many words day that are not edifying to our faith, including so many that serve to tear down and disrupt our faith and the dismantle the work You have been doing in our lives.

We confess that we are allured by the world's words. The devil disguises himself in the world's words as an angel of light. Give us discernment to know truth from error and life from death. Protect us from the evil one and his schemes. Help us to put on and to keep putting on Your whole armor so we might not be deceived. Help us to walk not like the world but to set our minds on things above and put off any and all words that are not building us up in our faith.

Send Your Spirit, O Lord, to strengthen us. We confess we have no power to keep ourselves or guard ourselves apart from Christ's resurrection power which dwells in us. Work in us so we might not turn to the left or to the right. Keep us from stumbling. Let us not give Satan a foothold in our lives by giving his words a hearing. May we continue to shore ourselves up by taking in Your word regularly, by being attentive to Your words and not his words.

Send Your Spirit, O Lord, so we might desire You and Your word more and more. Work in our hearts so we might be attentive to Your word. We know full well that Satan knows Your word is our lifeline, that is why he does all he can to keep us from Your word, or to keep us inattentive as we are hearing or reading Your Word. We confess we struggle with abiding in Your Word and letting Your Word abide in us. Strengthen us so we might be attentive to Your words and increasingly delight to hear and read them.

Exodus 32:1  When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us.  As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2  So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3  So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4  And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ...

33:1  The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2  I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3  Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

4  When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5  For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6  Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

7  Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8  Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9  When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. 10  And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11  Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

12  Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13  Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14  And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15  And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16  For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Lord God, we confess we are a stiff-necked people. Except for Your love, mercy and grace toward us who are in Christ, You would have consumed us long ago. We are no different than our forefathers. We have made our golden calves and worshiped them. We have discarded Your glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ for cheap imitations. We have preached Jesus as anything but the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We have lifted Him up as a good man or teacher but not as the atonement for our sins. We have shrunk back from preaching the torn flesh and the shed blood, but You, spotless Lamb of God, You never shrunk back from Your Father's will for You. You became obedient unto death, even death on the cross, all so we might be redeemed. You died for us while we were yet sinners. Some have even taught the lie that the cross was cosmic child abuse. O, but it was Your will, holy Father, to crush the Son so He might be lifted up as an offering for sin and so we might have life in Him. There was no other way for us to be brought to You but through His death on the cross. Our sins had to be punished in Him. He had to be made a curse for us so we might become the righteousness of God. The punishment that brought us peace was upon our dear Lord.

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Just as the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, we come before You now and we are stripping ourselves of all that is not glorifying to You: for those ways in which we have discarded, minimized, marginalized, diluted, corrupted and hidden the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. We have sinned a great sin in Your sight, O Holy God. For us to receive the free gift of salvation by grace through faith and not to proclaim it as we ought is most grievous to You. For us to receive the free gift of salvation by grace through faith and to be ashamed of it is most grievous to You. Forgive us and cleanse us from our sin. We plead the blood of Christ, for we have no other plea.

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

We confess that too often we have wanted to gain favor in the world's eyes and so we exchange the glorious Gospel for a lie. We do not act distinctly from the world. We confess we are afraid of offending others, but yet You have told us clearly that the cross of Christ will offend. Forgive us for fearing men more than we fear You. You have told us that many will stumble over the cornerstone and that few will walk the narrow way and many will remain on the broad way that leads to destruction. We cannot be obsessed with men's opinions of us. We must be obsessed with the pearl of great price and preach Christ and Him crucified. For through Christ alone is Your power unto salvation to all who believe: Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. From beginning to end, our salvation is all through the cross of Christ. There is no other way for men to be saved. In Christ alone is the true wisdom of God, though the cross may appear foolish to men. And we will look foolish as we speak it and write it. Yet there is no other good news for bad men but through the cross. The cross shows us our sin and points us to the only way to be reconciled to You. There is no other Mediator between God and men but the man Christ Jesus. There is no life for dead men but through the cross. There is no freedom from the penalty of sin but through the cross. There is no freedom from the power of sin but through the cross.

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Forgive us, Lord. Cleanse us from our sin.  Bring us back to the preaching of Your Word as we ought to preach it. If Jesus Christ and Him crucified is not lifted up and made the main thing, then how can we presume Your presence will go with us? We cannot. The Spirit was sent to glorify Jesus. The way Jesus is glorified is through the preaching of the cross. The only way You receive all glory, honor and praise is through Jesus Christ and Him crucified. How can we say we love You if we shrink back from preaching Christ and Him crucified? Forgive us for not holding fast to what really matters: Your glorious Gospel. We have grieved and quenched Your Spirit. Forgive us. We cannot accomplish the work You have for us apart from Your Spirit falling once again on the Church to revive us. Yes, we have been given Your Spirit when we were first saved, but we ask You to come again to us as You have in days past. In Your time we are trusting You will come again and revive us. Our bones are dead and dry and we need life, Lord of life. Be gracious to us, sovereign Lord.

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

How can anyone believe in You if they do not hear the preaching of the cross? No wonder why we are so ineffective today. No wonder why the Church looks no different than the world. No wonder why we continue to have churches that are a mile wide but an inch deep. True growth in holiness will never occur without the right preaching of the Word of God. We will remain as infants. And You will never bless us when we do not make the cross of Christ central. Yes, many churches may appear to be blessed, yet no church can ever rightly claim to be blessed by You unless they are lifting up Christ and Him crucified. As we try to serve two masters, we may gain a bit of favor in the eyes of men, we may grow numerically, but in the process we are losing our souls. And countless souls will leave our churches never having heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ rightly preached. And one day You will hold us accountable for what we have done with this glorious Gospel committed to our trust. How many lambs have we neglected our of expediency or fear of men or in an attempt to be trendy?

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

Lord God, how can preaching anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified be pleasing to You? Forgive us for seeking the approval of men. Forgive us for giving into the desires of our flesh. Your flesh was torn so we might be freed from the flesh nature and walk in the Spirit. How can we say we have Your Spirit if we do not preach Christ rightly? Forgive us, Holy Spirit of Christ for how often we have quenched You. The Spirit longs to have Jesus Christ lifted up. May we lift Him up as we ought. Lord God, You have committed this Gospel to us, this Gospel of salvation through faith in the blood of Christ. This is the Gospel You have entrusted to us. It is the only Gospel. Forgive us for not being trustworthy. Forgive us for not being good stewards. Forgive us for not guarding it as we ought. Forgive us for not contending for the Gospel as we ought. We cannot yoke ourselves with the world – ever. We are sent into the world but we are not of this world. We are sent with a message that comes from heaven. May we not dumb down or accommodate the message of the cross in any way. It will appear foolish and weak to the world. We will appear foolish and weak to the world as we preach it. Yes, the preaching of the cross is foolishness and weakness to the world, but it is the only power to reconcile lost men to God. Strengthen and equip us to speak clearly Your Gospel, no matter the cost to us. Send us pastors who are committed the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.

Lord, have mercy on us. Forgive us for not preaching Christ and Him crucified.

I've been posting some reflections on prayer, and most recently I've posted some prayers based on Nehemiah (please see here, here and here and here), Today's prayer is from Nehemiah 2, but it is a little different from the most recent prayers.

Nehemiah 2:9  Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10  But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah, the Ammonite servant, heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

11  So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12  Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. 13  I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14  Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. 15  Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. 16  And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work.

17  Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 18  And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. 19  But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20  Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”


Dear Father,

We see when Your servant Nehemiah was sent to lead Your people in the work of rebuilding the wall at Jerusalem, he met with opposition. We confess that sometimes  we are surprised or dismayed or discouraged when we meet with opposition. Yet we should not be surprised, dismayed or discouraged. Anyone who is sent to seek the welfare of Your people, of Your Church, is sure to meet with opposition. Satan, Your enemy, is our enemy because we are Your chosen people. Our Lord Jesus continued to be opposed. He was sent to be the Savior of the world, He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet even then we know all the opposition and rejection that He met was all under Your sovereign hand, all of it was according to Your sovereign will in fulfillment of prophecy and Your ordained plan for our Savior. Jesus warned us that as He was treated so we would be also. Help us not to fear or be dismayed, but to remember Your plan can never be thwarted, no matter how great the opposition we might meet. Help us to be assured that You are our Helper no matter the circumstance. Nothing is too hard for You. Your have promised Your Holy Spirit would abide with us forever and all authority and power is Yours. The devil is already a defeated foe.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

We need to have discerning ears and eyes as we meet with many people in this world. Many may despise us outwardly but there are times that Your enemies may come in disguise, like angels of light, like wolves in sheep's clothing. Help us to gentle as doves yet wise as serpents as we deal with people. May we be discerning and never yoke ourselves to others You are not calling to come alongside us.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

Help us to be discerning and obedient to the call You have put into our hearts to do for You and for Your people. Help us to remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in Your work for then our labor in You will not be in vain. There are times we must go out at night like Nehemiah did, to survey the walls, and there are times we must be silent about the work You are doing in us and what You are putting on our hearts. Help us to be faithful to work even when You are the only Friend we have, the only Friend in Whom we can confide in. There are those times of preparation, of plowing the soil or surveying the walls or going into our closets or to fast or to study undisturbed. Help us to know Your will for us and to walk in it. To persevere in those works You have called us to which are so vital, but not necessarily to undergirding the future work You have for us to do. Help us to persevere with joy no matter the place or the work You have for us. Be it alone on our knees or in front of a crowd. If we are obedient to You, we know Your yoke will be easy and Your burden light, no matter what the service.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.

Help us to wait on You for each step of the journey You have for us. So often we would not take that time like Nehemiah to survey the ruins alone and quietly at night. We would want to get right to it. But then as we see Nehemiah speak of what You had put on His heart in Your timing, that timing was perfect, for we hear the people acclaim, "Let us rise up and build" and then begin to make the preparations to do so. We can see how You were preparing their hearts to hear Nehemiah's message at just that time. Help us not to question Your timing. Help us to wait on You and trust You when You tell us to be silent, or to go away and pray more or to wait a little longer. We will never be ashamed as we wait on You. Help us not to seek the action, but to seek You and Your face first and foremost. We want to be in the middle of the battle, we want to be doing, but any work You call us to is vital and it is all battle, it is all action to further Your Kingdom and Your Gospel. May we trust that wherever You have us is a strategic place. May we trust that You are only waiting so Your Name might be highly exalted as You always choose to act in the way that will maximize Your glory. May we look forward to Your hallowing Your Name in Your time.

As You call us to the work of rebuilding, we trust that You, O God of heaven, are sufficient, that You will make us prosper, and You will equip us with all we need through Your Holy Spirit so we might arise and build. May we patient and wise. Guard us and protect us so we do not make wrongful alliances with or concessions as we work for You for Your the sake of Your Name and for Your glory.