Page 19 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

Why did Nehemiah ask God to remember what he had commanded? Had he forgotten? Absolutely not!
However, Nehemiah realized that he must feed the fires of his prayers with the fuel of God's promises.
Therefore, he asked God to remember the promises that he had made with his servant Moses. If we ever
expect to become high-impact leaders, we must learn to feed the fires of our prayers with the fuel of God's
word. Alan Redpath says, “Real prayer engages in a battle. Real prayer is rooted in the promises of God and in
the covenant of the blood. That is why Nehemiah's prayer was answered: it was based on God's purposes and
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God's promises.” Notice in verse 10 how Nehemiah reminded God that the Jews were Your servants and Your
people that You redeemed.

“Nehemiah experienced the exile, and he prayed that he might experience what God promised would come
after the exile. He prayed to live out the confession of sin, hoping to experience God remembering His
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Covenant. He begins this prayer in verses 6-7 by requesting that God hear his confession of sin.” He is
referring to the promises found in Deuteronomy 4:26-31 and Leviticus 26:40-42. But if they will confess their
sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me, which made me
hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies—then when their uncircumcised
hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant
with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. Nehemiah was evidently filled with
the word of God and was claiming the promises of God in these verses. “Do you want the strength of character
to look at desperate situations full in the face and have the wherewithal to do something about it? Fill your
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mind with the Bible.”

5. Looking forward with confidence (1:11)
Nehemiah 1:11 Please, Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to that of Your
servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success today and have compassion on him in
the presence of this man. ⌊At the time, ⌋ I was the king’s cupbearer.

Believers have not always found it easy to maintain the essential balance between waiting and working.
Nehemiah realized it would be foolish to rush into the king's presence with the wrong request at any
inopportune moment. He felt the urgency of the hour when he prayed, Give Your servant success today.
However, he continued to pray for the king's heart to be turned in a favorable direction towards his Jewish
brethren. He must have realized the truth found in Proverbs 21:1, which says, a king’s heart is like streams of
water in the LORD’s hand: He directs it wherever He chooses. (HCSB)

Nehemiah was in a comparable situation to Moses. Hebrews 11:24-25 teaches us that, by faith, Moses, when
he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to suffer from the people of
God rather than to enjoy the short-lived pleasure of sin. (HCSB) Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer. “The
Greek historian Herodotus tells us that the cupbearer's office was highly esteemed among the Persian people.
The wine steward was a man of recognized dignity in the court circles, entirely trustworthy, the king's
confidant, and next in rank to princes. Evidently, as Nehemiah began to fast and pray, God spoke to Nehemiah
clearly. It became clear to Nehemiah that he would be the man to leave the comforts of the palace of the city
of Susa to begin the building project of Jerusalem's walls. We all have those comfort zones from which we
seldom, if ever, like to venture out. Today, God is still looking for people who care enough to ask Him what His
agenda is, and as God speaks, he will move us out of our comfort zones, which should lead us to this response;
here I am, Lord – please send me.

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