PATTERN FOR PRAYER: CONFESSION -- Devotional for August 10, from "Good Seeds"

I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open to hear the prayer of Thy servant which I am praying before Thee now day and night, with mourning and fasting, on behalf of the sons of Israel, confessing our sins, theirs and mine. Remember Your promise: “If you return to Me and keep My commandments, I will bring you back to the place where I have chosen My name to dwell.” O Lord, I delight to revere Your name; will You not make Thy servant successful today before this man? (Nehemiah 1:4-11)

We think of the best sermons coming from preachers, and the best prayers from men of the cloth. But some of the best preaching and praying found anywhere in history came from the heart and lips of a laymen, a man more readily found in the secular halls of government than in any sacred place of worship. We’re speaking of a fellow whose life proved (to paraphrase an old cigarette commercial) that “you can take the man out of God’s country, but you can’t take God’s country out of the man!” Nehemiah the Jew had lived his whole life as an exile in a heathen land, far from his beloved Israel. But rather than wasting away in sorrow or bitterness, he had made the best of it, eventually rising to the noble position of cupbearer to the king. But his heart remained true to His God and faithful to his countrymen, so when word came that Jerusalem was in shambles, reflecting the spiritual condition of his brothers who were eking out a living there, he immediately fell on his knees before God. We can see in this man’s face and hear in his words a beautiful pattern for prayer that we would do well to follow. His prayer was rooted first of all in his relationship to God. Anything and everything that bothered him was first and foremost a spiritual issue. Now, he knew what he wanted to do: he wanted to take ACTION (the nickname of a character in “West Side Story,” probably called that because he fought first and asked questions later!) Nehemiah could have been a man like that: he wanted make a beeline to Jerusalem right now! Of course, he knew he would need permission and help from his employer the king. But even before that, he knew what he first must do. Not so much by plan as by instinct he retired to a secret place, to weep, to mourn, to fast, and to pray. He started where we all must start, on his face. There he saw himself as God saw him. There, also, he saw God for who He is, high and lifted up – and he worshiped! Do we revere our awesome God, in worship, as did Nehemiah, even before calling on the name of God, for help? After confessing His Savior, and confessing his sin, only then did he confess his needs. Prayer is all about confession. Will we pray like that?