Kneeling before God certainly helps us gain the right perspective when standing before kings.
We intentionally left off the last request in Nehemiah’s prayer since it’s worth a special look. It’s always good to leave God all the options when we seek Him, but it’s very good to make ourselves available to be included in the answer to our own prayers. This Nehemiah did: “‘and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.’ For I was the king’s cupbearer” (Neh 1:11). Whatever God was going to do in answer to his prayer, he wanted in on it! Four months passed. Each day, Nehemiah entered on his duties in the palace without a trace of the heaviness he felt. “Now I had never been sad in his presence before” (2:1). Knowing the influence of unhappiness on others, it was Persian etiquette not to show such sadness in the presence of the king. But now Nehemiah couldn’t hold it in any longer, and the king noticed. His final prayer request would suddenly come into play. “So I became dreadfully afraid, and said to the king, ‘May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?’” (vv 2-3). And the prayer for mercy was answered! “Then the king said to me, ‘What do you request?’” (v 4). There was no time for extended prayer as over the last months. But he had to pray! So like an arrow released from his quivering heart, he writes, “I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king…” (vv 4-5). Imagine this! A cupbearer asking for a leave of absence—to rebuild a city! Has God asked you to do something you think you aren’t equipped to do? The nice thing is, He pools His resources with us, and “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). I just thought that might be helpful to recall.