Daily Devotions
June 30th, 2015 by Pastor SolleyNeh 1:4-6 And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
5 And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments:
6 Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned.
Nehemiah is in prayer over a nation that has broken both his heart and the heart of God, a nation that because of sin has fallen, a nation that mocked the God of heaven, a nation much like America today. But take notice of the prayer of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah sets before God the sins of the nation in verse 6 he sets as well his own sin before the God of heaven. “We have sinned against thee”, “I and my father’s house have sinned”. Nehemiah does not place the blame completely on others, he takes responsibility as well. Nehemiah did none of the things for which God judges Israel but he knew he was not perfect before God. If we as Christian want to see this nation turn from sin to God, turn from darkness to light, then we need to take responsibility for our own sins, we need to stand up and confess before God our own sins. God works only through clean vessels and if we want to see the nation get right we need to be right before God.