About three or four years ago, Jerome Nathan led a Bible Study on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Since I've never considered the Old Testament to be my strong suit, I always enjoyed when Jerome chose to do Old Testament classes, since it was highly likely that we would be covering events with which I was less familiar, and that was certainly the case with that study.
Today's reading contained a verse that I immediately recalled from that study, because it reminded me of a comment I made during our Sunday discussion about a month or so ago. Nehemiah 4 describes opposition to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. To make my point, I'm going to separate Nehemiah 4:9 in two--here's the first half:
But we prayed to our God...
Always excellent advice, particularly in times of peril or distress, but as Pastor Fay described in his sermon today, we should take advantage of prayer whenever we can, because it's not an obligation, but a privilege. Here's the second half of that verse:
...and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
Some would argue that the first half of that verse made the second half unnecessary. Others (like me) would assert that the prayer the people made to God was answered by telling them to prepare themselves for possible attacks. For those of you that were in attendance at the Sunday where I discussed the importance of being prepared at all times (and for those that weren't, there's no excuse--you can watch the video here--go to the 13:45 mark), I referenced a quote attributed to Oliver Cromwell that states "Put your faith in God, but keep your powder dry."
There will be times when God works for us, but there will be many more times when he instead will work THROUGH us, and this minor verse in Nehemiah is one small example. I won't claim to be the ultimate authority or final word on the subject, but the common admonition for us is to BEGIN everything with prayer, not END it. If it were that simple, we'd simply pray that the Lord do what we wish and sit back and wait for it to occur. I don't think that's a reasonable course to take, and lets us off the hook for our own responsibilities in accomplishing things as stewards of the Lord's kingdom. Sometimes it is that simple--the Lord delivers us or provides for us in such a manner that we're left in awe to comprehend how and why he did it, but it will be much better for us to be pleasantly surprised when that happens than constantly disappointed when it doesn't. God answers our prayers--just don't be surprised when that answer involves action on our part.
Scott
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