Devotion for Wednesday 10/28/20 6 Minutes

Good evening everyone watching by video this evening,,, it's time for our weekly devotion.

And the scripture will come from my morning devotion book titled "Morning and Evening" by Dr David Jeremiah.

The scripture for this evening is Nehemiah 2:4

I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Nehemiah 2:4 4 Then the king asked me, “What is your request?”

So I prayed to the God of heaven

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this evening.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord,,, as we begin this evening,,, with all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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In the verses leading up to this verse,,, Nehemiah,,, (the kings cupbearer),,, is in the presence of the king,,, when the king noticed that he was sad.

Nehemiah had never been sad in front of the king before.

This was something that you just didn't do,,, you were forbidden to ever show any sadness around the king.

So the king asked him,,, why are you sad?

Nehemiah told the king that he was sad because the city where his ancestors were buried was in ruins and in need of rebuilding.

So this is where our scripture starts with the king asking Nehemiah for his request.

And in response to that question,,, what does Nehemiah do?

Nehemiah,,, immediately says a prayer to God.

You know,,, Nehemiah was in front of the king so this prayer must have been so very quick,,, because he wouldn't want to show any disrespect to the king,,, especially after the king is agreeing to see what was bothering him!

But we still see that,,, before Nehemiah answers,,, he prays.

How many times are we presented with questions or problems that quickly come up in our daily life and we forget to pray and see what God needs to say about whatever problem it is?

In David Jeremiah's book,,, he titled this devotion,,, "Rare Objectivity".

He said that Charles Swindoll once called wisdom "the God-given ability to see life with rare objectivity and to handle life with rare stability."

Swindoll wrote, “When we operate in the sphere of the wisdom of God . . . we look at life through lenses of perception, and we respond to it in calm confidence.

There’s a remarkable absence of fear. . . . We can either lose our jobs or we can be promoted in our work, and neither will derail us . . . because we see it with God-given objectivity, and we handle it in His wisdom.”

That’s the missing factor in many lives today.

We’re so busy with our problems that we don’t pause to seek God’s wisdom in handling them, as commanded in James 1:5.

But praying for wisdom doesn’t always take that long.

Remember earlier that when the king noticed that Nehemiah seemed troubled,,, and he asked the reason. “Nehemiah immediately prayed to the God of heaven,”

It was an urgent arrow of prayer, shot silently to heaven in the middle of a momentous conversation—and it got the job done.

If you’re facing a challenge today, take time to seek God’s wisdom.

If you have the proper relationship with God that you should have,,, prayer should be a part of your every day life.

Nehemiah had also spent 4 months praying and fasting about this problem before he got the chance to talk to the king about it.

But even though he had spent all of these months praying about this in advance,,, Nehemiah still prayed for guidance before he answered the king and presented his request.

Remember this verse as you continue your walk with God!

Be sure that you keep God in the decision making part of your life,,, your decisions will be improved immensely by adding this to your life if you haven't started already!

Jeremiah, David . David Jeremiah Morning and Evening Devotions (p. 620). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.