BYM ONLINE DESK Blessing Oct 2019 English Emagazine | Page 2

Watchful in Prayer
Dr. Mrs. Lilian Stanley
The Book of Nehemiah teaches us various aspects
of watchfulness. As we near the endtime, I believe
we need to learn about this spiritual discipline more
than ever. Jesus kept on alerting his disciples not to
be slack but to keep awake. Let's learn about
watchfulness in prayer from this Book.
The Book opens with a lament. Anybody who
heard about the condition of Jerusalem would have
said, “What to do?” and gone on with their
business. But not Nehemiah, who was a man of
prayer. He believed in the power of prayer.
Information about Jerusalem walls woke him up to
the fact, that prevailing prayer was the solution.
Here was a man who would go all the way for
what's important. He immediately set to work for
the daunting task ahead. Thereafter he never
slackened. He was ever on the alert mode
especially with regard to prayer. Nehemiah had
never seen Jerusalem before. He was born and
brought up in Babylon. Whatever he heard about
the glories of Jerusalem was hearsay. That kindled
in him a passion for Jerusalem. That personal
revival paved the path for national revival.
Brimming with optimism he immediately set to
work, the plan clearly laid out in a grid inside his
head.
When Sanballat and Tobiah insulted him, he
quickly sent an sms to God (Neh 4:1-5). When the
duo along with the Arabs, the Ammonites and the
people of Ashdod plotted to fight them, Nehemiah
didn't buckle but sent a telegraphic message to God
to take care of that (4:79). When the work was more
complicated than he expected, with civil unrest
throwing up, he went on red alert and raised his
voice to God (5:19). When the enemy said, “Their
hands will get too weak for the work and it will not
be completed” (6:9), Nehemiah quickly countered
the absurdity of their claim with his S.O.S, “Now
strengthen my hands, Lord” (v 9). When the
enemies used the prophetess Noadiah, pretending
to be an ally, to send a missile to destroy his morale,
Nehemiah blasted it with an interceptor of his
lightning prayer (6:14).
When the king asked him what he wanted, he
did not list out his wants immediately but “prayed
to the God of heaven,” before putting forth his
answer to the king (2:4).
He prayed before rebuking his own people's
sins (13:29-31). His life was hanging by a thread
but he never forgot to pray for himself
(13:14,22,31). When everybody else is distracted,
the leader must be doubly vigilant. So he was alert
to pray. The ultimate result - his brain storm did not
fizzle out! Nehemiah's vigilant prayer brought the
enemies to their knees.
Paul admonishes us to “pray in the Spirit on
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