There is more grace on practices than there is on preaching. Learning about prayer is wonderful but the practice of praying is powerful!
Nehemiah 9 is the longest prayer we will find in the Bible. You learn a lot about someone when you listen to them pray. You learn what concerns them you learn what’s important to them. Understanding prayer and its role in your life is a really important part of embracing this as a practice.
They had been coasting along in a mere state of existence and suddenly God begins to awaken their hearts as a result of prioritizing God’s Word and God’s work in their lives.
These people had not given their time, energy or money to any of the eternal purposes of God.
In this frame of mind prayer only happens when something goes wrong. Your problems should not be the pattern of your prayers. These people were like the average American today. They think about God maybe at Christmas, Easter and maybe when times get bad enough, they resort to prayer.
We should learn to make prayer our first response, not our last resort.
God invites us to a living, vibrant, conversational relationship with our heavenly Father. Perhaps the best illustration we have of God’s plan for prayerful conversation is a father and his child interacting joyfully, intimately and authentically.
These people had been living in a state of indifference for a very long time. There was no zeal or enthusiasm toward the things of God. How many of you have ever had a season like that in your life?
Their hearts and their minds or not spiritually activated. They were simply going through the motions.
Now we find them waking up to God’s call to be set apart and devoted to God’s desires above their own.
This chapter allows us to eavesdrop on a prayer that comes from awakened hearts that celebrate God’s faithfulness while recognizing man’s wayward nature. May we be awakened today in a deeper way even as we join together in this attitude of prayer. Feel free to declare what we learned in chapter 8 where the people gave enthusiastic response to the reading of God’s Word saying amen and amen with the lifting of their hands!
Nehemiah 9:1-3 The Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. 2 Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. 3 They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God. (declaring) “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.
He who was and is and forever will be is greatly to be praised!
Nehemiah 9:5-6 “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.
No one is like our God. We will lift up his name as we glorify the One True God of heaven who created the heavens and the earth!
Nehemiah 9:7-8 “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the (call-deeuns) Chaldeans and named him Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.
God’s plan is to release his people to embrace his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. You are a mighty warrior in the army of your God.
Nehemiah 9:9-10 “You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. 10 You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day.
When we cry out to God in places of difficulty he hears our cry and comes in response like any good father would!
Nehemiah 9:11-12 You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. 12 By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.
You protect us, you lead us, you guide us and you direct us on this journey of walking with you and discovering our God-given destiny.
Nehemiah 9:13-14 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
Thank you Lord that you love us so much that you came down to meet us where we are. Your wonderful laws provide clarity on the pathway to true life through Jesus Christ!
Nehemiah 9:15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst, you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.
Has anybody experienced God’s provision in times past? He’s the same yesterday, today and forever and what He did before He’ll do again. We give thanks for your provision Lord!
Nehemiah 9:16-18 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and, in their rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.
God is faithful even when we are faithless. Thank God for His faithfulness even when we’ve turned away again and again. God is faithful!
Nehemiah 9:19-20 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst.
Thank you for that you never abandoned us but by your Holy Spirit that you gave us you draw us into the deeper purposes of God giving us direction every day and every night of our lives just as you provided the cloud by day and fire by night.
Nehemiah 9:21, 25 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen…. 25 they took possession of houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in abundance. They ate to the full and were well-nourished; they reveled in your great goodness.
We are so thankful for your goodness, your provision, your strength and grace that you so freely have given us over and over again.
Nehemiah 9:26-27 “But they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. 27 So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed, they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
You have been faithful over and over again oh Lord! When we deserved to suffer the result of our sins you so mercifully and graciously went to great lengths to draw our attention to you and restore our lives.
God is faithful!!! If you have received the gracious faithfulness of our loving Father stand to your feet and give voice to your love, appreciation and celebration of his mercy and grace!
Everywhere we go….
We Bring GP2RL Action Point: Continue to read Nehemiah daily asking the Holy Spirit to awaken our hearts to His eternal purposes.
NEHEMIAH: Praying and Rehearsing God’s Gracious Love
DISCUSSION GUIDE
UNDERSTANDING THE SEASON: Nehemiah is all about rebuilding the ruins of the work of God in our world. God’s people had grown distracted and disconnected from God’s plan for them to be the expression of His Kingdom in the Earth.
Jerusalem had been in ruins since the Babylonian invasion in 586 B.C. Nehemiah lead the third of three returns to Israel after 70 years of exile in Babylon. Even in a state of ruin God was still at work looking for someone who would have a heart to respond to what God was about to do.
This is the condition of the Western church today. Much can be gained by a close examination of Nehemiah’s response in his day. God woke up a fresh movement that brought life but it was met with great challenges. No matter how challenging it was God was always seeing his work through.
God’s work is a work within us as we learn to respond to Him. It is God’s plan is for us to spend time drawing close to his heart and hearing his voice together as a family. This is why we start each meeting with this question first:
DISCUSSION QUESTION:
1. Where are you reading in your Bible and what are you sensing from God?
FOR GROUP LEADERS: The focus of the day is how God awakens something within our hearts when we truly embrace his Word. Invite people in your group to share practices that they have found to be life-giving to their walk with God.
Before reading, please encourage everyone to consider the deeper encounter of the God of the Word as you read the Word of God together. We are believing for the Holy Spirit to awaken his conversational nature as a result.
Nehemiah 9:1-7, 16-20 The Israelites gathered together… (declaring) “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. 5 “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the Lord. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you. 7 “You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and…you have kept your promise because you are righteous….16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and, in their rebellion, appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore, you did not desert them… 19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness…20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. ESV
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
2. DISCOVER: Have each person give a simple 60 second summary of what these verses are saying, Encourage people to try not to add insights or application yet. Just simply summarize.
3. DEVELOP: What do you sense God may be speaking to you personally as we focus on these verses?
4. DEPLOY: We are to be doers and not hearers only. What will you do this week in response to what you sense God is revealing in this time together?
Everywhere we go, we bring...
GP2RL: Continue to read Nehemiah daily asking the Holy Spirit to awaken our hearts to His eternal purposes.