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all occasions with all kinds of prayers and
requests. With this in mind be alert and always keep
on praying for all the Lord's people” (Eph 6:18).
Why? Because we are not fighting against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms (Eph 6:12). Nehemiah perfectly
understood this, that he was not fighting against
Sanballat and Tobiah, but against satan. That was
why, when his confidence was put to test, he
needed to pray, more than anything.
Writing to the Colossian congregation. Paul
again writes, “Devote yourself to prayer, being
watchful and thankful” (4:2). After a strenuous day
of ministry and severe flogging lands us in a prison
cell, we would fall into an exhausted sleep. But
Paul and Silas were alert in prayer (Acts 16:25).
That shook the prison with a violent earthquake.
We know what happened after that.
Do you know why we need to be alert in
prayer? It is when we pray that satan gets agitated
and comes to dance with us. When the Holy Spirit
took Jesus to the wilderness to fast and pray, satan
followed them to see what he could do about it. He
stayed with Jesus all the forty days, disturbing Him
and tempting Him. As a mortal, Jesus had to
struggle for forty days weighing the options of
walking the red carpet to climb the throne of the
kingdoms of the world and climbing the calvary
path to Golgotha to be crucified and buried before
being exalted to the glorious throne. After a forty
day struggle He could kick satan out of His way
because of His alert prayer.
Jesus taught us to pray not to be led into
temptation but to be delivered out of it.
Temptations assault us from all angles. That's why
Jesus taught us that prayer. In one slack moment
David was felled. A careless wandering sucked
Samson into an abyss. Nehemiah was tempted to
“come down” but he refused to “come down”
(Neh 6:2,3).
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus alerted
His disciples to “watch and pray” lest they enter
into temptation. “The spirit indeed is willing, but
the flesh is weak” (Mk 14:37,38).
What were the temptations that Nehemiah
faced to give up on prayer?
The first was depression. From every corner
of his ministry he was hearing the cry, 'Not
possible. Give up.' Nehemiah would have faced the
temptation to give up halfway through, because of
the uphill task. It was his watchfulness in prayer
that carried him through. His spirit was willing but
his flesh was weak, now and then breaking down.
The mammothness of the task made him weep and
mourn (1:4). He was not fazed by obstacles but
they led him to a “small beginning”. He planted a
mustard seed. He never allowed the nagging
monster of self - doubt to eat him away. Often when
we see the hugeness of what we face, we feel it is
too much for us. We don't even consider praying for
it. We shut shop. Only if we realize that it is satan
who is singing the lullaby to our prayer life, we will
wake up and take up the matter 'to the Lord in
prayer'. That is where we start. All other efforts will
be as ineffective as a water pistol against a nuclear
bomb.
Another temptation to lull our prayer life is
fear. “I was very much afraid” says Nehemiah,
because of the king, yet he prayed before the king
(2:2-4). A black cloud descended on Daniel's
prayer life. Would he come out of it like sunshine?
He did come out like a rainbow and sunshine. The
threatening forces fell apart. He simply
overpowered his opponents by prayer. If he had
succumbed to the fearsome forces around him and
stopped his praying, Babylon would have lost a
chance to hear about the living God in a massive
wave and Daniel himself would have withered and
died in a foreign land. But his optimism and spirit
never took a beating. “When Daniel learned that
the decree had been published, he went home to his
upstairs room where the windows opened towards
Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his
knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as
he had done before” (Dan 6:10). “So Daniel
prospered” (v28).
May be you face problems at home or school
or work spot. More problems are yet to come in the
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