Friday, March 6, 2009

I'm With Nehemiah

Photo by crabchick.


Our pastor, Jim Bailey, is preaching an inspiring sermon series right now about restoration. Not the furniture kind. The soul kind. The life kind. The kind that makes life worth living. (You can listen to his sermons yourself by clicking here and listening to the February 22 and March 1 sermons. Enjoy!) Jim's sermons come out of the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament of the Bible. I decided to start reading on my own at home, and I came across a funny little phrase I want to share with you. In Nehemiah chapter 1, Nehemiah has just gotten some bad news, and he starts to pray. Part of his prayer in verse 6 says, "let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying..."

Have you ever had a time in your life when you were so overwhelmed or
flummoxed by your circumstances that you couldn't think of anything to say to anyone - let alone The Almighty God? So what do you do then? Like the character Sam Baldwin in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, maybe you just "get out of bed every morning... breathe in and out all day long."

I think that's where our friend Nehemiah found himself. Flummoxed and overwhelmed. So when he prayed, "Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear," I think he meant,
"Yes, Lord. Hear our prayers, yes. But also look on our daily lives. When we can barely lift our hands and our hearts to You and we don't have the words to form eloquent prayers. Look with Your eyes on our lives - on our getting out of bed and breathing all day long - and see the prayers our lives have become before You. Let that count. Answer those prayers, too."

What do
you think?


17 comments:

Ralph said...

Hi - stopped by at the request of Paul and glad I did.
I was perplexed and confused when I came across the word flummoxed. I also did not know about dictionary.com. That will become a new favorite.
The picture with your Soup Party post made me laugh a lot. Great, great picture. I will also be trying that recipe in the near future – this weekend. It sounds great.
I’ll be back so please keep up the great writing and overlook the grammar errors in mine.
Ralph

Heather Trent Beers said...

Ralph, thank you so much for stopping by. I'm sure glad you enjoyed yourself and that you found a few useful things while you were here. :o) The soup is one of our favorites! Hope you enjoy it, too. I look forward to seeing you around here some more.

Scarlet said...

I'm visiting from Paul's place...and I do believe God hears the cries from the heart (our unspoken prayers). He hears them AND answers them. He works in mysterious ways, so with Him anything is possible.

Great post!

Heather Trent Beers said...

Thanks for stopping by, Scarlet. I agree with you. God hears all our prayers - spoken and unspoken, loud or quiet, eloquent or messy. I'm so glad He just loves to have us come to Him!

Anonymous said...

Hi Heather!

Dig the pic! I thought it was interesting having your eyes open to hearing?

Blessings your friend,
Erin

Heather Trent Beers said...

Thanks, Erin! Glad you stopped by. Come back anytime, k?

kc bob said...

I think that sometimes our spiritual eyes need to be open to enable us to really hear what someone is saying.

Heather Trent Beers said...

That's a good point, and I agree. My husband also suggested the connotation of "Read my lips" - meaning, "I'm really serious about this, Lord."

BuggBoyZ said...

Hi Heather! What a wonderful thought. Too often life overwhelms me and I get wait... flummoxed! (I've learned something this afternoon!) Isn't it wonderful that our Lord has provide His Holy Spirit to clear our minds and hearts and pray for us when we don't even know what to pray for?!?
Thanks for sharing your heart!!
George

Heather Trent Beers said...

Hi George!
Thanks so much for stopping by and for your comments. I heartily agree and am equally thankful for God's Holy Spirit!

Jamie Dawn said...

Any time is a good time to pray, but when bad news comes our way, prayer is sometimes all we have to hold on to.
I'm here via Paul's blog.

:-)

Heather Trent Beers said...

Hi, Jamie Dawn. You are right. Any and every time is good prayer time. It's good we have that extra avenue especially when times are tough. Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking the time to comment. :o)

Anonymous said...

Paul Nichols sent me. I just love this post and the one before it. I will be checking in often. Thank you for your eloquent words of wisdom.

Anonymous said...

Paul Nichols sent me. I just love this post and the one before it. I will be checking in often. Thank you for your eloquent words of wisdom.

Heather Trent Beers said...

Hi Gina! I sure appreciate your stopping by. That Paul sure exerts a lot of influence, huh? :o) Glad you enjoyed the post. I look forward to seeing you again.

Marla said...

Paul sent me to visit. I hope to visit you again. Welcome to the blog world. We all love Paul!

Jim and Amy Bailey said...

Awesome Heather...you preach so well in your writing..just enough to get my heart involved and connect with what you are sharing.
Thanks for offering us your great gift!