Closer | Be Real With God

Intro

PRAY for Neveah - Leaving for Camp

Have you ever had a time where you were stressed or scared and a shout comes out of you?

Duck Story

I couldn’t help but react. Those moments reveal something deeper within us.

With prayer, we picture it as these polished prayers. There is a time for that, but I want to talk about when prayers feel messy, when they feel real.

When you show up as your honest self to God.

Tension

Nehemiah, gets devastating news: the walls of Jerusalem, the center of his people’s identity and worship, are broken down and burned.

The people are in great trouble and distress.

Most of us don’t face a literal destroyed city, but we know a similar feeling of something blowing up in our lives.

A relationship that blows up

Your parents split

You lose a friendship

You mess up in a way that hurts someone else.

Our first response is often to get to work, trying to fix everything in our lives, or to avoid dealing with it.

Kelsey often asks, “Have you prayed about it?”

A lot of us this unspoken rule in our heads: “Good Christians don’t question God, don’t admit they’re mad, don’t bring the ugly stuff to prayer.”

So our prayers become fake.

On the outside we pray, “God, thank You for this day, but ont he inside we’re thinking, “God, where are You?”

Nehemiah shows us something different : God can handle our actual emotions and we can bring them to Him honestly.

Tonight I want to talk about how to come to God honestly, by picking a part Nehemiah’s prayer to the Lord.

TRUTH

Nehemiah 1:3-7,11

Nehemiah hears the report about Jerusalem and he doesn’t shrug it off. He doesn’t pretend to be fine.

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For DAYS I mourned and fasted and prayed.”

A little child when they get hurt, he turns to his parents for comfort to be held.

Before Nehemiah ever leads, plans or rebuilds in chapter 2, he breaks in chapter 1. He sits and cries, he lets his heart actually feel what’s happening, and his first reaction is to turn to God, THE FATHER.

I long for that to be my first reaction in crisis. TO TURN TO GOD.

Real prayer starts there.

APPLICATION

There are three steps in Nehemiah’s prayer that I see : Remember, Repent, Request.

Remember

He doesn’t jump straight to “God, fix it!”. He starts with remembering

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love.” - Verse 5

God is bigger than the crisis. The city and their life is in ruins, but God has not lost control.

God allowed this season, but He is still sovereign over it.

IMPORTANT : Nehemiah’s prayer isn’t just emotional processing; it is rooted in the truth of God’s character and promises.

Repentance - to turn away from our sins

Verse 6 - “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.”

Nehemiah doesn’t just complain about the situation or just cry about the pain. He admits where he and his people have been wrong, the ways he has sinned.

Before Nehemiah asks for help, he brings confession.

Real prayer isn’t just dumping feelings, it’s also letting God show us where our hearts, choices, or patterns are off and owning that before Him, and turning away from our sins.

There could be something in your life that you’re asking from God, but God is saying, “Don’t you see this heart issue over here? This is harming you way worse than not having this thing over here!”

We will NEVER outgrow our need for repentance.

We are going to talk more about what this looks like in the next couple weeks.

Request -

Only after the previous two, does Nehemiah request.

“Give your servant success today” - Nehemiah 1:11

He is honest about what he wants, but by the time it comes to “REQUEST”, it comes out of a place of :

trust (because of remembering)

humility (because of repentance)

Not entitlement

IF YOU HAVE TIME, YOU COULD PRACTICE THIS PRAYER - REMEMBER, REPENT, REQUEST

LANDING

Nehemiah, didn’t impress God with perfect words. He came to God with tears, confession, and trust. You can do the same. You don’t have to pretend you’re okay. You don’t have to hide what you really think. The God who allowed Nehemiah’s crisis is the same God who walked him through it, and He is still sovereign over yours.

You can be real with God.

PRAYER :

God, thank You that You are great and awesome and still in control, even when life feels broken or unfair. Thank You that You don’t ask us to fake it with You. Help us to be honest about what hurts, honest about where we’ve sinned, and honest about what we need. Teach us to pray like Nehemiah: with real emotions, real confession, and real trust in who You are. Give each of us the courage to bring our whole heart to You this week. In Jesus’ name, amen.