“Then the king said to me, ‘What do you request?’ So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king…” (Neh 2:4-5).
How long does it take to change the course of history through prayer? Nehemiah’s prayer was momentary, but it led to a chain of events that rebuilt Jerusalem and set the stage for the coming of Messiah. Although long times in prayer often are beneficial, every day we have moments that can be pivotal if turned into prayer. James Keller, in One Moment, Please, tells about Ken Smith, a conductor in Baltimore, Maryland. He had a seven-minute gap between runs, spent at a half-acre loop that was a tangle of weeds and undergrowth. He began to use that time each day to gradually change the waste area that was an eyesore into a garden.
How different our world might be if we took those wasted moments throughout each day and used them for petitions that would pray down such blessings that we do not have unless we ask for them (see Jas 4:2).