Prayer lifts us up to God. But it does more than that. It brings God into our circumstances, too.
It’s essential to learn to “weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15). But it’s not enough to only weep. Rivers of tears have flowed from human eyes out into the desert of lethargic inaction. But before Nehemiah lifts a finger to help, he lifts his heart in prayer. “I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Neh 1:4). This is the first of two titles of the Lord that the author uses in his many prayers and conversations flavoring the book: “the God of heaven” (1:4, 5; 2:4, 20). The other is “my God” (2:8, 12, 18; 5:19; 6:14; 7:5; 13:14, 22, 29, 31). Here is the key to Nehemiah’s spiritual success. He understood two glorious facts about God. First, He is the transcendent One. How big are your enemies, your challenges, your heartaches? Do you feel them towering over you, blocking out the sun? Nehemiah knew Someone much bigger than that! This was a popular name for the Lord in those days. Ezra and Daniel used it often, too. I think it’s time to bring it back into vogue. But the other gripping name for the Deity used by Nehemiah was simply “my God.” The transcendent One is also the immanent One. “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones’” (Isa 57:15). Nehemiah had learned that the God of heaven is also the God of the humble, or as Paul would express it, there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph 4:6). Oh, that the Lord may grip our hearts with these two glorious realities: my God is preeminent, “above all,” but He is also present, “in you all.” It’s okay to shout, Hallelujah!