In Nehemiah, chapter two, verse four, his first impulse always was to pray. Before answering the King’s question, he breathed a prayer to God for help and wisdom: just one of the many times in the book where Nehemiah spontaneously called upon God, as in chapter four, verses four through five, verse nine, chapter five, verse nineteen, chapter six, verse nine, and fourteen, chapter thirteen, verse fourteen, verses twenty-two, twenty-nine, and thirty-one, respectively. However, in the case of Nehemiah before the King, he only had enough time to cry out to God from his heart. In emergencies, we do not have time for long prayers. Nehemiah’s brief prayer touched God because of the four months of praying and fasting. It pays to be “on praying ground.”
Habitual praying frequently throughout the day will make way for a greater flow of God’s grace, help, and wisdom in our lives. To forget our dependence upon God and the need for His presence with us throughout the day will limit the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Our prayers must seconded with serious endeavors, or else we mock God. We are not limited to moments in our addresses to the King of kings but have the liberty to go to him at all times; approaches to the throne of grace are never out of season. But the sense of God’s displeasure and the afflictions of his people are causes of sorrow to the children of God, under which no earthly delights can comfort. The King encouraged Nehemiah to speak his mind. The encouragement gave him the boldness to speak. The invitation Christ has given us to pray and the promise that we shall speed encourage us to come boldly to the throne of grace. Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven, as infinitely above even this mighty monarch. He lifted his heart to that God who understands the language of the heart. Nor should we ever engage in any pursuit in which it would be wrong for us thus to seek and expect the Divine direction, assistance, and blessing. There was an immediate answer to his prayer, for the seed of Jacob never sought the God of Jacob in vain.