How to Be Strong No Matter What Happens [Day 2]

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It’s the kind of detail you miss if you don’t have access to a good Bible commentary (or a learned and refined blog like this one):

Four months pass between Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2.

Nehemiah 1:1

Now it happened in the month of Chislev….

Nehemiah 2:1

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes….

“Chislev” is the Jewish lunar month of November/December, and “Nisan” is the Jewish lunar month of March/April. Our story begins in chapter 1 in November/December 446 BC, and then resumes four months later in chapter 2 in March/April 445 BC.

In other words, Nehemiah has been praying about his meeting with the Persian Emperor for four months!

 
 

Today’s Nehemiah Reading (Day #2 of 15): Nehemiah 2:1-20

 
 

How to Be Strong No Matter What Happens

I love the story of Nehemiah’s life-and-death meeting with Emperor Artaxerxes that’s told in our reading today. As the cup bearer to the king, Nehemiah is a close personal aide and advisor to the king, and yet he is still taking his life in his hands with his audacious request to be sent back to Jerusalem—at royal expense(!)—to rebuild it. I love his gulped prayer (v. 4) and how he then boldly pushes ahead. And, the king grants his request!

Nehemiah’s four months of prayer have prepared him for this moment in 2 ways:

  1. He has become the kind of person who is able to simply do the right thing when the moment comes. Disciplined prayer shapes us like an athlete’s training—when it’s game time, you just do the right thing without thinking about it. Disciplined prayer is God’s way of making us wise.

  2. He knows that he has been praying and that his life is in God’s hands; whatever happens, God is with him. So, when the moment of decision comes, he gulps out his prayer and just pushes ahead.

What if you started preparing today for your next challenge in the same way? Circle something in prayer, and when the moment comes, walking boldly ahead, knowing that you are in the hands of the Lord.

That’s the secret of strength.

 
 

P.S. Today’s Leadership Lesson from Nehemiah

When applicable, I’ll add a brief leadership lesson to each day’s reading. Here’s today’s:

When Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem, he doesn’t tell anyone what he’s there to do. Rather, he goes by night and silently inspects the walls, learning about the state of the ruined city before he shows his hand.

Listen and learn first, and then act.