First (Nehemiah 1:1-11)

Good morning ladies,

The word of the day is “first.” Back in the day Israel took a shellacking and the city was all jacked up. God needed someone to rebuild the walls and so he employed one of his most faithful guys. Nehemiah had a huge task set before him and knew that taking it on was going to be like eating an elephant… and how do you do that? One bite at a time. The cool thing is that out of all the stuff that he could have done first, he chose prayer…

“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…”

~Neh. 1:4

My question is: when you have a task that is pretty big, what is it that you do first; where does prayer fit into that equation? For instance, this past couple of weeks has been pretty insane for most of you with finals and stuff. I would encourage you to evaluate your time spent with God in that time period and see how you can become more effective in spending time with Him. Life is straight up crazy sometimes and I forget to pray sometimes in the madness, thinking I need to move faster and with more force. My prayer is that you slow down a bit today, lay out your tasks and cares, and pray that God would give you direction. God will give you success as you look to him and persevere.

Praying for you,

mo