When Hope Seems Lost... Turn to God (Joe Penner)

Where were you when the world stopped turning on that

September day? Many of you know that that is a

Alan Jackson song in reference to the Twin Towers terrorist

attack on 9/11. And maybe you remember where you

were when you first heard the news.

I know we were talking this week with some friends and sharing

that we all remembered exactly where we were.

I I was in Grade 8, I was at school and I first heard the

news and they ended up sending us home.

But it was such a shocking news to the world.

Many schools did leave and and many people left work.

At 8:46 on September the 11th, 2001, American Airlines Flight

11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New

York. 17 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into

the South Tower. Less than an hour and a half

later, both towers collapsed. The Twin towers were a symbol of

power and strength for the US economy.

They were among the tallest buildings in the world and a

central hub for some of the most prominent companies in the

world. The towers that once stood as

icons on the New York City skyline, a source of pride for

New York City and all of America, were destroyed.

And where did people turn in the aftermath?

Where did people go when they were hurting, when all hoped

seemed lost? Some found comfort in church,

others found comfort in rallying together and and working

together to provide for the needs of those around them.

Some turned to anger, calling for vengeance and retaliation,

while others isolated themselves out of fear, turning to alcohol

or drugs to numb the pain. All of these were responses and

attempts to deal with or make sense of the pain and suffering

that they were going through. Or maybe just to try to make the

pain stop, at least for a moment.

What about you? Where do you turn when life

feels like it's falling apart or there's no hope?

How do you respond to the pain and suffering that you go

through in your life? Where do you turn when nothing

in your life seems to be going your way, your prayers aren't

being answered, and you feel like God is against you?

Where do you turn when you hit a roadblock in life?

You had a plan for where you were going, but then the car

broke down, you got injured, you lost your job.

Where do you turn when you receive the news that that a

loved one was in a bad accident, received a devastating diagnosis

or passed away? We all go through dark seasons

of life where we feel like everything is unravelling.

It feels like everything's coming, crashing to the ground

and there is nothing that you can do to stop it.

It feels like there's no hope. So what do you do?

Where do you go? Where do you turn when life

feels like there's no hope? This morning we're beginning a

new series in the book of Nehemiah.

And the encouragement that we're going to receive from Nehemiah's

example this morning is that when hope seems lost, turn to

God. The book of Nehemiah.

We're at the beginning of the book of Nehemiah.

We're introduced to a hopeless situation.

So where does Nehemiah turn in this hopeless situation?

He turns to God. And this morning we're going to

learn from his example of turning to God when hope seems

lost. But before we do that, let's

pray for the Spirit to open our eyes as we dig into His Word

this morning. Holy Spirit, we pray that You

would give us wisdom and insight as we come to Your Word.

Your Word is a blessing, it is a privilege, it is a joy, and we

must search it and desire it more than riches, more than

gold, more than silver, because it leads us in truth, it leads

us in righteousness. It shows us the only path to

true joy and satisfaction and fulfillment.

And Lord, we pray that as we come to Your holy Word this

morning, that Your Spirit would open our dim eyes, that You

would open our hard of hearing ears, that You would soften our

hard stone like hearts, that we might receive and believe and

obey Your Word. Help us to know that You are a

God that we can turn to in the midst of difficult

circumstances, that we might find true joy and satisfaction

in knowing that You are leading us and guiding us.

We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Before we open up our text this

morning, I want to take a little bit of time to to show us where

we are in the timeline of Scripture.

We need to understand where we are at this point in Israel's

history to properly understand what is going on here.

And so I have a bit of a graphic here that I'll just sort of

summarize. I know it might be a little bit

hard to read, but as we come to the book of Nehemiah, we, we

think around 600 BC, Jerusalem was destroyed.

God had warned Israel that if they didn't obey him, he was

going to punish them and scatter them to the ends of the earth.

And that's exactly what happened.

The Babylonians came, they, they decimated Jerusalem.

They destroyed the temple. They carried off all the gold,

all the silver, and they brought it to Babylon.

They burned the city's gates, they demolished the walls.

They killed thousands and LED thousands others into exile as

slaves, leaving only the poorest of the poor behind.

And the Israelites were in exile for 70 years.

Then in about 536 BC, after about 70 years of exile, the

first wave of about 50,000 Jews goes back.

The the Persians had come into power and they were a little bit

more gracious than the Babylonians were.

They allowed nations to go back and, and to begin to rebuild and

restore and, and have community. They allowed them some freedom

in that sense. And the Jews returned, began

rebuilding the temple, and in about 516 BC they completed the

rebuilding of the temple. The Temple was now rebuilt, but

the walls around it were not. And so they were still left and

they were still open to attack. Then in 458 BC, Ezra leaves

Babylon and he leads a second wave of people back to

Jerusalem. And Ezra's focus at that time

is, is teaching the Torah, teaching them the commands of

God, and calling the people back to faithfulness to God in his

word. And in 445 BC is where we pick

up this morning, approximately that time as Nehemiah hears a

report about what is going on in Jerusalem.

Let's read Nehemiah chapter 1, the words of Nehemiah the son of

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

Hakaliah. Now what happened in the month

of Kislev in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that

Han and I, one of my brothers, came with certain men from

Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped

who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who had

survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down in its gates are destroyed

by fire. As soon as I heard these words,

I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued

fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome

God, who keeps covenant in steadfast love with those who

love Him and keep his commandments.

Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the

prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and

night for the people of Israel, Your servants confessing the

sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against

you. Even I in my Father's house have

sinned against you. We have acted very corruptly

against you and have not commit, have not kept the the

commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded

your servant Moses. Remember the word that you

commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I

will scatter you among the peoples.

But if You return to Me and keep My commandments and do them,

though Your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heaven,

from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that

I have chosen to make My name dwell.

There they are Your servants and Your people, whom You have

redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.

Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your

servant, into the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear

Your name. And give success to Your servant

today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Now I was cup bearer to the king.

We begin this passage with a conversation between Nehemiah

and his brother Hannah and I, who had come with certain men.

They had gone to to Judah. They had gone to the city of

Jerusalem to see how things were going.

Who knows, maybe they were planning on staying there and

setting up shop. But they come back with this

shocking report after having been back for almost 100 years.

They say the remnant in the province who had survived the

exile is in great trouble and shame.

The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed

by fire. Things are as bad as ever.

And in light of this dire situation, when all hope seems

lost, where does Nehemiah turn? He turns to God.

Verse 4 says, As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept

and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying

before the God of heaven. He turns to the Lord, the God of

heaven, and this morning we're going to look at his prayer and

learn how we can turn to God when all hope seems lost.

As we look at the elements of his prayer that you can pray in

the hopelessness of whatever situation you may find yourself.

The first reason that we can turn to God is we can turn to

God who keeps his covenant. Nehemiah is confident in turning

to God because he is a God who keeps his covenant.

Look at verses four and five or verse 5.

And I said, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome

God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who

love him and and keep his commandments.

God keeps his commandment because he is the God of heaven.

Verse five, he says, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome

God, Nehemiah doesn't turn to a person or to a group or to an

institution that he thinks might be able to help them.

He turns to the God of heaven, the great and awesome God.

He turns to a God who created all things.

He turns to a God who sustains all things, who controls all

things, and God is able to keep his promise because He is the

great and awesome God, the God of heaven.

He is all powerful and is above all things.

The second reason that he keeps his covenant is because He is

the God of love who keeps covenant.

Verse 5 says who keeps covenant in steadfast love with those who

love Him and keep his commandments.

God had chosen the Israelites to be His people, and He had made a

covenant with them for them to walk in in obedience to Him

because of their love for Him. And so long as they loved God

and kept His commandments, God's love would continue for them.

Now we shouldn't see that. Sometimes we look at that and we

say, well, how does God have such high expectations for His

people that they would? As long as you perfectly obey my

law, then I will love you. But we have to understand that

that's not what God's expectation is.

His expectation is not that they would perfectly satisfy His law,

which is why He instituted a sacrificial system.

He knew they were going to sin. He knew they were going to fall

away. And so he said, But when you

sin, here is what you must do. Bring a sacrifice and offer it

to the priest. And so His word wasn't that he

expected them to obey it perfectly, but that they would

follow it even when they sinned. Then they would turn in

obedience and offer the proper sacrifice.

And so God, even in His grace, made a way for them to be

forgiven. And so long as they loved God,

as long as they walked in faith and obedience to his Word, God

would keep his covenant with them.

And so we see here that when Nehemiah heard of all the shame,

all the trouble, all the the dire situation that Israel was

in, when when all hope seemed lost, he turned to a God of

heaven, He turned to the God of love who keeps his covenant.

Now the Israelites were in this situation to begin with because

they had not turned to the Lord for help.

Rather than trusting in God, they trusted in their own wisdom

and understanding. God had been faithful.

He had brought them out of Egypt.

He had delivered them from the hands of their enemies and and

brought them in to the Promised land.

He promised them that he would bless them and give them success

if they loved him and obeyed his word.

But they didn't. God warned that if they refused

to obey Him, He would bring in another nation to punish them,

to take them out of the land in order to discipline them.

In God's warning to Israel, He said in Deuteronomy chapter 29

Deuteronomy 29:24–28

verses 24 through 28, all the nations will say, as they come

and and see this is God warning them.

After these nations come in and destroy you as a nation and take

you out and bring you into exile, all the nations will say,

Why has the Lord done thus to the land?

What caused the heat of this great anger?

Then people will say it is because they abandoned the

covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made

with them, when He brought them out of the land of Egypt, and

went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they

had not known and whom they had not allotted to them.

Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land,

bringing upon it all the curses written in this book.

And the Lord uprooted them from the land in anger and fury and

great wrath, and cast them into another land as they are this

day. The Israelites were disciplined

by God because they did not keep his covenant.

Instead, they trusted in their own wisdom.

Brothers and sisters, where do we turn in difficult

circumstances when hope seems lost, Who do we put our faith

in? Our trust in?

Our tendency is is to try to fix it ourselves.

I, I got this, I can fix it. And the reason that we don't ask

for help is because of pride in our own heart and in our own

lives. We think that we can do it on

our own, but what we need to do is trust in the Lord with all

your heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all

your ways. Acknowledge Him and He will make

straight your paths. And this is exactly what

Nehemiah does when he comes to this hopeless situation.

He puts his trust in God. TJ Betts and his commentary on

the book of Nehemiah says sometimes in dire situations

people will say, I guess all we can do is pray.

It is as if prayer were a last resort, but it is no last resort

for Nehemiah. For him, it is his first option.

When prayer becomes the first option for a person, it is an

indication that he or she is truly walking with and depending

on God in all things. I don't know what difficult

situations you're facing in your life.

Maybe you're facing a big stressful decision.

Maybe you've experienced pain or loss.

Maybe you feel like a shoreline pounded over and over again by

the waves. You barely can get up enough to

get your breath, and then another wave comes and knocks

you down. Whatever you're going through,

where do you turn first? Where you turn reveals what you

trust. We can and we should trust God

because He is worthy of our trust.

The God of heaven, the great and awesome God loves those who love

Him and will be faithful to His covenant.

When hope seems lost, turn to God.

The next thing that we learned from Nehemiah's prayer is that

you should turn to God in humble confession.

Nehemiah turns to a God who is loving and faithful, but he is

great and powerful and is to be feared, and so he knows that he

must come with an attitude of humble confession.

Verses 6 and seven says Let your ear be attentive and your eyes

open to hear the prayer of your servant, that I now pray before

you day and night for the people of Israel, Your servants

confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have

sinned against you. Even I in my father's house have

sinned. We have acted very corruptly

against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes

and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

And we noticed 2 examples of confession in Nehemiah's prayer.

The first example is confess others sins.

He says that he's confessing the sins of the people of Israel,

which we have sinned against you.

Nehemiah recognized that that God didn't make a covenant with

one man. He made a covenant with the

nation Israel. When they disobeyed, God

punished them as a nation. When they were obedient, God

bless them as a nation. And for this reason, Nehemiah

turns in humble confession to God, confessing the sins not

just of himself but of Israel, because he recognized that they

were all guilty. Though the sin might have

started with just a few people, when it was left unchecked, it

then began to permeate through the whole batch, and sin began

to spread through the whole group of people, thus making

them all guilty. Nehemiah confesses other

people's sins, but the second example of Nehemiah's confession

is confess your sins. He says in verse 6, even I in my

father's house have sinned. He moves to personal confession.

Yes, they are guilty as a nation, but each individual is

accountable and guilty before God and he recognizes that he

was guilty even his family. Each and every generation has a

responsibility to faithfully follow the Lord and Nehemiah

recognizes that they have played a part in their in the sin and

and rejection of God's word. And he goes on to talk about

that sin. Verse seven.

He says we have acted very corruptly against you and we've

not kept the commandments, we've not kept the statutes, we've not

kept the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

He's Speaking of the Torah, all these commands that God had

given for them to follow. He says we've abandoned them,

we've not kept them and he doesn't sugarcoat it.

He says we have acted very corruptly.

He understands the seriousness of disobedience to God which has

resulted in their desperate and shameful situation.

Now it would seem like hope is lost.

But Nehemiah turns to God in humble confession, knowing that

he will be faithful to his covenant.

Now, we have been conditioned by our world to think that we can

demand our rights, that we have a right.

You know, we have this saying that the customer is always

right. And so when you go to to

McDonald's and you order a cheeseburger and they forget the

cheese, well, guess what? You can walk in the door and you

can demand that they give you a new cheeseburger with the cheese

on there. If you go to Tim Horton's and

you get a coffee and that coffee doesn't taste the way that you

know that it ought to taste, you can waltz back in the door and

you can demand that they give you a new fresh coffee that does

taste right. If we don't like what our

government is doing, we're told that that we can go and we

should go to our government officials and we should demand

that that our voice be heard. This week I read of a story from

a manager who worked at an art supply store and and she was

working one day and and a customer came in and and slammed

3 bags on the on the till and said I want to return all of

this stuff and rebuy it. The manager responded OK can I

ask why I bought all this stuff on Friday at another location

that was 1500 miles away from here and and their tax rate is

higher and so I want to return all of this stuff and buy it

here to pay lower taxes. Now hurry up I've been driving

all day and I'm tired. This was going to be a big pain

because she had tons of of little things that she had

purchased and all of this work to save about $2.50.

But as ridiculous as it was, the manager began processing the

return and and sort of intentionally only scanning one

item at a time to make it take even longer.

All the while this woman is becoming more irritated and more

agitated and more frustrated and complaining.

Finally, she had scanned all the items for the return and she

said it's about time. You'd be done already if you

weren't so stupid. Now I want to buy it all again.

The manager couldn't believe it, but she began slowly and

patiently ringing up back all the items again.

And after ringing all of the items back up again, she noticed

something. The total was much higher than

it was previously. And then she realized what

happened. And she said to the lady, Sorry

ma'am, but it looks like you used our exclusive coupon on

Friday. Unfortunately, that coupon is no

longer valid. The lady was furious and she

began screaming and making a scene in the store, but there

was nothing she could do, so she eventually just paid for the

items and stormed out. Now when you hear a story like

that, maybe you're like me and you feel like, yeah, you deserve

that. You deserve that because of your

arrogant attitude, right? How can I tell you something?

Did you know that the Lord feels that way too?

First Peter 5 verse 5 says clothe yourselves, all of you,

1 Peter 5:5

with humility toward one another.

For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The Lord opposes the proud. And when Nehemiah comes to the

Lord, he doesn't come in pride or arrogance, demanding

something. We're the Israelites, Lord,

You've chosen us as your people. You have to listen to us.

He doesn't come with that attitude.

He comes with an attitude of humility and confession.

He knew that they deserved what they were getting.

Brothers and sisters, this must be our humble attitude as well.

When we come to the Lord not coming thinking that we deserve

anything or that we can demand anything.

The only thing that we deserve is death and judgement and

punishment because we have sinned against a holy God.

And because of this, we must come to him in humble

confession, not just confessing our sins.

I think it's easy for us to do that.

I think most times, I think when we can finally humble ourselves,

it's easy to confess our sins. How much harder is it to confess

other people's sins? Because we like to hold on to

those and hold the grudge and hold bitterness, but we need to

come to the Lord confessing their sins as well.

Because God has not just saved and redeemed you, He is saved

and redeemed a people. It's about community, not just

you as an individual. And when we come to the Lord and

humility, that is that attitude that the Lord loves and

willingly gives His grace. First John says if we say we

have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not

in us. If we confess our sins, He is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness. When hope seems lost, when your

situation seems worse and completely hopeless, it's easy

to become self-centered. And when we do, we become the

victim. And then we feel like we deserve

justice. We feel like we can demand

justice because I'm the victim here.

But we must turn to the Lord with a humble attitude,

confessing other sins as well as our sins.

And when we do, God will be faithful.

The next thing that we're going to learn from Nehemiah's prayer

is that we should turn to God who is committed.

Nehemiah confidently turns to the God of heaven because he

knows that God is committed to his people.

Look at verses 8 through 10. Nehemiah prays.

Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses

saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the

peoples. But if you return to Me and keep

My commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the

uttermost parts of heaven, from there will I gather them and

bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name

dwell. There they are your servants and

your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and

by your strong hand. The first thing that we see is

that God is committed to discipline.

He says remember the word that you commanded your servant

Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you

among the peoples. Nehemiah recalls God's warning

to his people. God had made a promise to

discipline them if they did not follow his ways.

This is exactly the situation that the Israelites find

themselves in. They're experiencing the

discipline of the Lord, but God didn't leave them on their own.

He didn't give them and bring them into the land and leave

them on their own. He had given them His word to

follow. He had given them His

instructions. He said, here is my word.

And not only that, but He himself was with them in the

midst of them. His presence was with them.

But the Israelites still disobeyed, and therefore God

disciplined them. And God's discipline is a good

thing because it's it's intention is to lead us to

repentance. And so when his people repent,

God is committed to restoration. Look at verse 9.

Nehemiah's Prairie says, Speaking of the Lord.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them

though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from

there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I

have chosen to make my name. Dwell there.

God knew that His people would sin, resulting in discipline,

but He is committed to restoring them when they do what?

Return to him? Keep His commandments?

Obey them. God is so committed to His

people that when they turn back to Him, it doesn't matter how

far they've they've been scattered.

The Lord had sent them out and into different lands, into a

people that they did not know and to nations that they did not

know. But God's promise is that no

matter how far I've scattered you, even to the ends of heaven,

I will bring you back to a land that I have chosen to make my

name dwell there. What a promise that Nehemiah

could hang on to. And the reason that God is so

committed to his people is because Nehemiah says in verse

10, they are your servants, your people whom you have redeemed by

your great power and by your strong hand.

God is committed to his people because He has redeemed them.

He has saved them and so when they disobey, he is committed to

them both to discipline, leading them to repentance.

And when they repent and turn back to God, he is committed to

restoring them. Now everyone I think probably

loves Lego. I remember as a kid having the

generic sets of Lego, you know, like the maybe, maybe you'd

remember the big red box and you dump it out and they say use

your creativity and just build whatever you want.

Well, there's a reason I didn't get a job in any sort of design

or anything like that, because I'm not all too creative, you

know, My, my creativity was summed up in a rectangular house

and the most generic car you've ever seen in your life.

I much prefer the sets that come in and they have the plans,

right? They tell you what to do and you

just follow the instructions and you build the thing, right?

Well, maybe you don't know this, but there's actually an adult

section on the Lego website. Adults can go and purchase adult

Lego sets. So I was looking on there a

little bit and you can get a Titanic Lego set.

It has 9090 pieces, and if you're willing to part ways with

$850, that'll be yours. You can get the Colosseum of

Rome. In Rome it's 9036 pieces, and

the one I think that maybe impressed me the most was an

Eiffel Tower Lego set. This thing is just about 5 feet

tall, has 10,000 and one pieces, and it was a little bit cheaper

than the Titanic, so it's $800.00.

So you save a little bit of money too.

But Can you imagine getting a Lego set that has 9 or 10,000

pieces with no instructions? You would be lost.

I mean, you, you would barely know where to start.

And, and even if I know, we all know this trick, right?

You look at the box and you try to replicate it the best you can

by looking at the box. Even if you did that, I mean,

you would never get all of the intricate details and all of the

intricate parts, right? There's just way too much.

There's way too many details. And so you realize that the

instructions are a good thing because the instructions help

you build it exactly the way it's supposed to be built.

You would never go, oh, these instructions are such a burden.

Oh, it tells me exactly what to do.

This is the worst. You wouldn't do that.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes when we look at God's word,

that's what we think. We look at these rules.

We look at these regular regulations and we say, like,

what a burden. And that's what we think of the

Israelites, man, they must have been so burdened by all these

rules. These are how on earth would

they keep track of being able to follow all these different

rules? But that's not how they viewed

it. They loved God's word.

Look at Psalm 119, verses 9 through 16.

Psalms 119:9–16

How can a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to Your Word.

With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your

commandments. I have stored up Your word in my

heart, that I might not sin against You.

Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes.

With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies. I delight as much as in all

riches. I will meditate on your precepts

and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes.

I will not forget your word. That doesn't sound like a people

that are overburdened by God in His rules and His laws.

The people, they understood what this meant.

All the nations around them worship these gods that they

didn't know, that they didn't understand, and they didn't know

how to appease these gods. And so they would do things like

sacrificing my child. I'll take the biggest sacrifice

that I can make and hope that this thunderstorm will stop

because the gods are clearly angry with us.

They didn't know how to appease these gods.

But the Israelites were different.

God says here, here is how you live before me in righteousness

and in holiness. Here is how you walk in truth

and in goodness. And they rejoiced that God

didn't leave them guessing, but led and instructed and guided

them by His word. He is a God of covenant and

tells them exactly what he expects of them and is committed

to that covenant. And therefore the people rejoice

because they have a covenant with the living and true God.

But as we think about the transition to the New Testament,

we thank, we're thankful that the Lord ushered in a new

covenant, a new and better covenant through Jesus.

Jesus is the better prophet who came and spoke the Father's word

to us. Jesus is the better high priest

who offered himself as a sacrifice once for all, for all

mankind. Jesus is the better King who

committed, who is committed to love those who love and obey his

word. Speaking of this better covenant

through Jesus, the writer of Hebrews says consequently, he is

able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God

through him, since he always lives to make intercession for

them. Maybe you fear God.

Maybe you're scared to go to God because you feel like you'll

receive judgement. And you should fear God because

all have sinned, and our sin makes us guilty before a holy

and righteous God. But that fear should lead you to

turning to God in faith in Christ.

No matter how you have sinned, when you turn to God through

faith in Christ, repent of your sins and keep and obey His word,

He will save you. Nehemiah understood this.

He understood that the fear of the Lord was a good thing that

turned him to God. Look at what he says in verse

11. O Lord, let your ear be

attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of

your servants, who delight to fear Your name.

How can Nehemiah say that he delights to fear God, to fear

His name? We don't usually delight in the

things that we fear, do we? But to fear God is to rightly

understand that He is Lord, that He is judge of all the earth.

And when we fear Him, we desire to please and obey Him.

And it's when we fear Him that we turn to him and we draw near

to Him. And when we understand God's

Word, we realize that that the commands that He gives us, the

way that He calls us to live, it's not burdensome, it's a joy.

His Word gives us life. His Word is light to our path.

His Word leads us and guides us in the only true way.

We think in our flesh that all of these things in the world

will give us joy and satisfaction and contentment.

But God's Word stands in stark contrast, saying, no, those

things will not fulfill you. Here is the path to joy, to

life, to truth, to peace. Therefore, God invites us to

draw near. He says in James 4 verse 8, Draw

James 4:8

near to God and He will draw near to you.

First Peter 5 verses 6 and seven says humble yourselves therefore

1 Peter 5:6

under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may

exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him because he

cares for you. Nehemiah understood that the God

of heaven cared for him. He cared for his people and

therefore he says at the end of verse chapter one, verse 11,

give success to your servant today and grant him mercy.

In the sight of this man, Nehemiah understood that when

all hopes seemed lost, he could turn to God and humble

confession, knowing that God would be faithful to his

covenant and committed to his people.

No matter what situation you're going through, no matter how

hopeless things seem, always know that you can turn to God,

humble yourselves before Him, and He will exalt you at the

right time. Cast all your anxieties on Him

because He cares for you. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this prayer of Nehemiah that has been

recorded from us and Your wisdom.

You have kept it recorded for us.

Lord, we have this wonderful model prayer for us that we can

learn that in hopeless situations in this life when we

feel like there is no path forward, You are there to hear

our prayers. You are there to help us, to

guide us or in our own flesh. We won't come to You because we

are stubborn and hard headed, but we pray that You would give

us a sensitivity by the power of Your Spirit.

Then in those situations that our first resort would be to

turn to You in prayer, trusting that you are in control, that

you are powerful, and that you love and care for us.

Help us to come with an attitude of humility, calling to

remembrance your covenant and your promises to us, knowing

that you will be faithful. Or we thank you for all these

wonderful promises for us in Jesus Christ, and we pray that

you would strengthen us through them.

In His name we pray. Amen.