Nehemiah: From Rubble to Return

This week begins a new series on the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had such a big view of God and it gave him strength, security, peace, and contentment in the midst of uncertainty, insecurity, danger, turmoil, complaint, grumbling, weariness. He also placed a high priority of prayer. Prayer as we shall see today and in coming days, was not an add-on for Nehemiah. It wasn’t a “spiritual discipline.” It wasn’t a ritual. It wasn’t only for when he was in a real mess. When prayer is only “you HAVE to pray because God wants you to” then you really don’t understand prayer. Prayer, as we will see in Nehemiah, is a response of relationship. We don’t talk to God because He’s a high maintenance God who needs conversation with us our He’ll be lonely or empty without us. Prayer is a response of our heart because we know who He is, what He has done, and how without Him, we will never really be ultimately satisfied. We need prayer far more than God needs it. And we need it all the time, whether we realize it or not. So we will look at Nehemiah's prayer this week and the person of Nehemiah next week. Text: Nehemiah 1:11b-2:8 Speaker: Sam Shin Date: 1/20/19