Nehemiah 1:5-11
Nehemiah’s prayer takes up the rest of chapter one. Go ahead and read the whole prayer and we will discuss portions of it the rest of the week.
God Keeps Covenant and is Merciful
5And said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
6Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.
A covenant is an agreement. God doesn’t break His word. He keeps covenant…take a minute and ponder that. He remembers what He has said and promised. He works this divine trait in us as well. Psalms 15:4 talks about how we are to keep our word even when it hurts. Perhaps the Israelites wondered if God was still willing to remember them. Things were not looking good for them at the moment. Nehemiah’s prayer reminds us that we serve a merciful God. When we love Him and are obedient His mercy overflows towards us. Verse 6 starts a very important part of the prayer. Nehemiah asked God to listen to his prayer and then he confesses that he and his people have sinned. Nehemiah is placing himself and the nation in a position of receiving God’s mercy. Tomorrow we’ll see Nehemiah getting more specific about what went wrong…but today we will simply ponder the fact that sometimes our situation has to do with disobedience….and that God hears a repentant heart. Notice also that God can use one of His people to begin repentance for a group.
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