You are on page 1of 3

NEHEMIAH – PART 3 YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOV 2005 WEEK 4

THE PRAYER LIFE OF NEHEMIAH Leader’s Notes

Learning Outcomes:
FOCUS (10 mins) Understanding, Behaviour
Read or ask someone to read the introduction of member’s notes.
Objective:
Lead them into the discussion question.
At the end of this lesson, you
will be able to:
Spiritual truths or lessons learnt from the content of Neh’s prayer:
• Recite three aspects of prayer
Suggested answers:
in Nehemiah’s life.
1. God is all powerful (God of heaven).
• Implement one practical action
2. God is one who keeps his words. (1:5)
to enhance your prayer’s life.
3. Acknowledgement and identification of national sins.
• Experience praying together as
4. Confidence in the power of God.
a cell group.
5. Confidence in the faithfulness of God.

Below is an edited commentary by Warren Wierbse for your own reading


and understanding. Please do not run through the commentary
mechanically with the members.

This prayer begins with ascription of praise to God (1:5). “God of heaven” is the title Cyrus used for the Lord when he
announced that the Jews could return to their land (2 Chron. 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–2). The heathen gods were but idols on the
earth, but the God of the Jews was Lord in heaven. Nehemiah began his prayer as we should begin our prayers: “Our Father
which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name” (Matt. 6:9).

To what kind of a God do we pray when we lift our prayers to “the God of heaven”? We pray to a “great and awesome God”
(Neh. 1:5, NKJV; and see 4:14, 8:6, and 9:32), who is worthy of our praise and worship. If you are experiencing great affliction
(v. 3) and are about to undertake a great work (4:19; 6:3), then you need the great power (1:10), great goodness (9:25, 35),
and great mercy (v. 31) of a great God. Is the God you worship big enough to handle the challenges that you face?

He is also a God who keeps His Word (1:5). The Lord had made a covenant with His people Israel, promising to bless them richly
if they obeyed His Word, but warning that He would chasten them if they disobeyed (Lev. 26; Deut. 27–30). The city of
Jerusalem was in ruins, and the nation was feeble because the people had sinned against the Lord.

The greater part of Nehemiah’s prayer was devoted to confession of sin (1:6–9). The God who promised blessing and chastening
also promised forgiveness if His people would repent and turn back to Him (Deut. 30; 1 Kings 8:31–53). It was this promise that
Nehemiah was claiming as he prayed for himself and the nation. God’s eyes are upon His people and His ears are open to their
prayers (1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chron. 7:14). The word remember is a key word in this book (Neh. 1:8; 4:14; 5:19; 6:14; 13:14, 22,
29, 31).

Note that Nehemiah used the pronoun “we” and not “they,” identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know.
It would have been easy to look back and blame his ancestors for the reproach of Jerusalem, but Nehemiah looked within and
blamed himself! “We have sinned! We have dealt very corruptly!”

This humble prayer closed with an expression of confidence (Neh. 1:10–11). To begin with, he had confidence in the power of
God. When the Bible speaks of the eyes, ears, and hands of the Lord, it is using only human language to describe divine activity.
God is spirit, and therefore does not have a body such as humans have; but He is able to see His people’s needs, hear their
prayers, and work on their behalf with His mighty hand. Nehemiah knew that he was too weak to rebuild Jerusalem, but he had
faith that God would work on his behalf.

He also had confidence in God’s faithfulness. “Now these are Thy servants and Thy people” (v. 10). In bringing Babylon to
destroy Jerusalem and take the people captive, God chastened the Jews sorely; but He did not forsake them! They were still His
people and His servants. He had redeemed them from Egypt by His great power (Ex. 14:13–31) and had also set them free from
bondage in Babylon. Would He not, in His faithfulness, help them rebuild the city?

Too often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them; but Nehemiah didn’t make that mistake. He sat down and wept
(Neh. 1:4), knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he
was doing.
NOTE:
I personally find this “focus” boring. However, I have run out of idea on what
you do to open up this lesson. The above is just another discussion and bible
study into a particular passage. If you find all the materials too heavy, you
may skip this discussion altogether. You may ask them to go back to do
it as a homework. This calls for some creative
juices to make the lesson
Alternatively, you may do you own “focus” which is an opener to the interesting.
topic of prayer.

Leader’s Notes
page 1 of 3
NEHEMIAH – PART 3 YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOV 2005 WEEK 4

In these parts, break up your cell into 3 groups. Remember to keep time.
Give each group 5 minutes to go through the questions. Each part has 4
questions each. Invite the groups to present their thoughts.

Open up to the whole cell only when you felt necessary. Else, if every question
is open to everyone, you will not be able to complete within the allocated time.

My suggested answers are given in the next page.

PART II – Priority of Prayer


What do Neh 1:4 and 4:9 tell us about Nehemiah’s prayer life? It describes the
Priority of prayer. He always prays first before action. It speaks about a immediacy of
vibrant prayer life, one of closeness and awareness of his standing with God. prayer. There is no
In 4:9, he pray then post guard, not the other ways round. need for us to get
away to a particular
For us, we usually rely on prayer as a last resort, after failing through all our
place, or wait until we
human means. can set aside
prolonged time for
Why do you think many Christians tread a prayerless life? undisturbed reflection.
Because we don’t believe in the power of prayer. If everyone really believe At any moment we
that God is a prayer-answering God, that will drive many of us to our knees. can talk to God. There
and then, in the
presence of a human
Do you have a prayer partner or someone you pray with?
king, Nehemiah is at
Purpose of this question is for you to know who are the people in your group the footstool of
who usually pray together. You can open this question to the whole cell and heaven.
try to encourage mutual accountability.
It illustrates the
Some ways of encouraging each others to grow in our prayer life? naturalness of
By praying together. By calling each other to pray on the phone. By prayer. Although
Nehemiah had spent
reminding each other to pray at a specific time. If need be, assign prayer
hours in prayers over
buddy for them. the waiting weeks, to
pray again at that
PART III – Pleasure of Prayer crucial moment was
the instinctive reaction
In his prayers, how does Nehemiah address God? What does that tell of a dependent
us about his perspective of God. (compare with Neh 1:5) believer. He prayed
God of heaven. God is above all the idols of the pagan societies (Ancient because it was the
Near East). God is a covenantal God. God is a loving God. Nehemiah has a most sensible and
relationship with God. rational thing to do.
He lacked the
resources but he knew
Prayer can be enjoyable. Do you agree? Why and why not? where they could be
Some may say that prayer is hardwork. Yes, it is true but can also be found.
enjoyable. Eg. letting the peace of God reign in your hearts in times of
turmoil, or praying fervently (in tongues) which leads to spiritual It portrays the
breakthrough and felt that have touch heaven. Also, sometimes, prayer don’t intimacy of prayer.
have to be very long… (see last question) When in those
seconds, he prayed to
the God of heaven it
Some practical ways to help us cultivate the presence of God? was not a desperate
Making conscious efforts to remember God wherever we are. Praying silently cry to a distant God.
in tongues or in words during traveling in bus/mrt. Ask WWJD etc. He was communing in
secret with a caring
This quick petition illustrates at least 5 practical lessons for us. Father. There was
See my sermon notes on the right hand side. Don’t read them to member, hardly time for words,
the sigh became a
summarizes the thoughts in your own words.
supplication. Between
one breath and
PART IV – Power of Prayer another he was in the
audience chamber of
Do you think Nehemiah would be able to accomplish all he did if he
God, assured that he
had not prayed? Why and why not? would not lack
This is a tension issue between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. In anything necessary in
general, God’s will will not fail. That is, God will still cause the exiles to return his daring venture.
to rebuild Jerusalem etc. But likely, God may not work through Nehemiah but
rather raised up others to accomplish his purposes. Question for the people: It demonstrates the
if they are not obedient to God’s will, God will bypass them. confidence of
prayer. He was
communing with the
Why do you think God choose to work through prayers of his people? God of heaven, the
It is a divine mystery, but God created us for his pleasure. He desire God of unique
communion and partnership with us. More than accomplishing the task, God sovereignty,
is at work in refining us. See my quote. comforting,
omniscience and
What do you think goes into the process of prayer? limitless resources.
Jesus taught his
Yes, agreed with the statement. Prayer calls us to look at how feeble we are
disciples to address
Leader’s Notes
page 2 of 3
NEHEMIAH – PART 3 YOUNG ADULT CELLS NOV 2005 WEEK 4

actually (contrary of who we think we are) and cause us to look at the their prayers to a
greatness of God. There are many things that man cannot do, and prayer Father in heaven, and
exemplifying this
helps us to realize that. (humbling experience).
when he looked to
heaven in moments of
Have you experience the power of prayer before? needs.
Let them share a testimony of how God answers their prayer. The purpose is
to build up faith in the cell. Testimony has the effect of cementing our It proves the
experiences of God together. effectiveness of
prayer. The quick
petition was
V. Conclusion (5 mins for reflection parts) immediately
Run through the items in the conclusion section. answered. The
unfailing Lord was at
his side. Within
seconds, the right and
best words were on
his lips and, in the
same moment, the
God of heaven caused
generous thoughts to
enter King
Artaxerxes’s mind.

Note:
For the conclusion, I want the
cell to practise prayer instead of
just learning about prayer. Do a
quick summary and give them 5
minutes to write down their
thoughts for question 1 and 2.

For prayer together, I leave it up


to you to organize the prayer
time. If you cell is big, you may
break them into smaller group so
that there is more participation.
Solicit prayer items from them.

At the end of this lesson, if the


people form some kind of prayer
arrangement in the cell, it would
be a good success in the lesson.

Leader’s Notes
page 3 of 3

You might also like