A Confession of Faith

Neh. 1:10-11  “We are your servants, the people you rescued by your great power and might.  O Lord, please hear my prayer!  Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you.  Please grant me success now as I go to ask the king for a great favor.  Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” 

This is a confession of faith.  Nehemiah is affirming the faith of the people of God.  He recognizes what God has done for His people.  He is not taking for granted why they were still around.  It was because God had rescued them by His great power and might and had preserved them as a people.

Nehemiah then, by faith, asked the Lord to grant him success as he went back to the king to ask him a favor.  He was, by faith, taking a big risk.  He didn’t know if the king would give him an audience, listen to him, or treat him with kindness.  By faith, he was asking God to give him success as he went to the king.

It is good for us to acknowledge God’s hand on our lives.  We need to profess God’s faithfulness to us.  We need to proclaim His grace and mercies.  We are who we are because God is watching over us and working in our lives to make us holy.

It is good for us to not be afraid to ask God to help us.  Praise precedes petition.  When we humbly affirm God’s role in our lives, then we can boldly ask the Lord to help us.  When we take the Lord for granted and what He has done for us, it is ingratitude.  God hears the prayers of those who take delight in honoring Him. 

May the delight of your heart always be to honor the Lord. 

God's promises are true.

Neh. 1:8-9  “Please remember what you told your servant Moses.  ‘If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations.  But if you return to me and obey my commands, even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’”

Dear friend, claim the promise.  Nehemiah is recalling God’s promise to Moses.  He is asking the Lord to honor His Word.  God is trustworthy and always stands behind His Word.  This truth is essential for victorious living.  It is good to pray over the Scriptures to God. 

In order to remind the Lord of His promises, we must know them.  We must hide His Word in our hearts so that we can readily refer to it in our times of need.  The more saturated we become by the Word, the more apt we are to stand on the promises and not fall.  The more saturated we are by the Word, the more likely we are to handle it correctly and not try to use it for our advantage or comfort.

Think for a moment about what God has promised to do for us.  How many of His promises can you recall today?  Each and every one of them is backed up by His character.  How many of them are you standing on today?  Are you absolutely sure that you can stand on them and not fall?  Do you know for certain that God will do what He has said He will do for you?

If there is any shred of doubt whatsoever in your heart, ask the Lord to help you believe.  Ask Him to remove your doubts and fears.  Ask Him to cement His truths deep within your soul so you can stand on them with boldness and confidence.  Don’t be afraid to tell Him the truth; He can handle it.  Tell Him about your apprehensions.  Tell Him you want to believe, but that you are struggling.  Tell Him what you are feeling, regardless of how troubling it may seem to you.  He can handle whatever you throw at Him and He has a promise to address your every need.

God’s promises are not empty words, nor are they outdated.  They are given for you to believe today.  You can trust God to keep His Word.  What God has spoken WILL come to pass.

Confession of Sin

Neh. 1:6-7  “…..listen to my prayer!  Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.  I confess that we have sinned against you.  Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!”  We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, laws, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.”

This is a confession of sin.  Nehemiah was praying long and hard for the people of Israel.  He knew that they were not right with God.  Even though God had chosen them to be His own, they had chosen not to embrace Him.  They were content with living in their sins.  They did not regard God as worth their time or energy.  They kept going deeper and deeper into the evils that surrounded them.

Notice that before Nehemiah prayed for the Israelites, he prayed for himself and his family.  He did not think for a moment that he was not guilty before God.  He knew that he had to be right with God before he could pray for others.  It is essential for us to confess our own sins before we concern ourselves with the sins of others.  No one is without sin problems.  We all fall short of the glory of God.  We all have the need to admit our sins, confess them, and seek Christ’s forgiveness. 

Once we deal with our own sins, then we can plead with God on the behalf of others.  And yes, we should, no we must, be in prayer for the sins of others.  We live in very perilous times.  Sin raises its ugly head blatantly wherever you go.  The times are desperate.  The coming of the Lord to purify all things is very soon.  Time is running out on the lost.  We must pray like we have never prayed before.  We must be praying for our families, friends, neighbors, and whoever is lost that they may be saved before the Lord comes.  There is still time for souls to be saved.  Prayer is the key to unlocking heaven’s door. 

Pray and then go and tell whoever you can that today is the day of salvation.  Tell them that once the Lord closes the door of opportunity, it will be too late.  Tell them that there still is victory available to them in Christ Jesus.  Tell them.  How can you say you love them if you never tell them? 

Don't mess with God.

Neh. 1:5  Then I said, “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands……”

This is a confession of who God is.  He is the Lord God of heaven.  He has no equal.  He rules over all He has created.  He alone knows the mysteries of creation, the things we can see, and the things we can’t see.  He sees beyond the most powerful telescopes in the entire world and He sees what is in the very deepest parts of the ocean depths. 

The Lord is great and awesome.  There is no power that can compare to Him.  There is nothing beyond His ability to do.  Words are not sufficient to describe His power.  Awesome is far too meek of a word.  Behold the manifestation of His power in that which He has created, behold His power in redeeming grace, behold His power in sustaining grace, and stand in awe of Him.

The Lord keeps His covenant of unfailing love.  He never fails to love, for He is love.  His love goes far beyond our ability to comprehend.  He loves those who love Him and obey His commands, but He also loves those who do not love Him back.  He loves everyone even though He has to reject those who fail to love and obey Him.  He knows those who reject Him and yet loves them and will love them for as long as they live.

Dear friend, don’t mess with God.  Don’t shrug your shoulders and spurn His love for you.  He loves you, but will not embrace you if you don’t embrace Him.  He will love you to your very last breath, but if you reject Him you will find yourself spending eternity in hell.  God wants to make a covenant of love with you.  He wants to call you His own.  If you have not returned His love, I pray that you will do that right now.  Open up your heart to Him and let Him pour His love in.  Don’t delay; if you wait, it may very well become too late for you.

Does sin make you blush?

Ezra 9:6  I prayed, “O my God, I am utterly ashamed.  I blush to lift up my face to you.  For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens.”

The children of Israel had not kept themselves separate from the people around them.  They had intermarried with the people around them and embraced their gods.  They had defiled themselves and defied God who had clearly told them to do neither.  When Ezra discovered what they had done, he was driven to his knees before God.

Ezra blushed in God’s presence.  He was ashamed of how God’s people had conducted themselves.  He was embarrassed by their behavior.  I wonder when the last time was that we blushed in the presence of God.  Have you ever been embarrassed and ashamed of the behavior of others?  What about your own behavior?

A careful reading of God’s Word reveals sin in us.  I suspect many of us don’t like spending very much time reading and studying the Word because we are afraid of what we may find there.  We don’t scrutinize our behavior and thought lives because we know that we will come up short.  We take the low road instead of the high road because it requires so much less of us. 

The problem is the way to heaven is always the high road.  The high road is the road to holiness.  God commands that we travel on it.  There is no condemnation for those who do it.  There is guilt, shame, and embarrassment for those who don’t.  Which road are you traveling on today?

Blushing is a good thing if it moves us to pray for others and ourselves.  It is good for us to recognize and acknowledge the sin that plagues us.  It is good for us to approach God and seek forgiveness whenever sin is found.  It is good for us to pray for those who can’t, or won’t, pray for their own sin.  Sin is an abomination to God and He will judge it wherever it is found.  We will reap what we sow.  Pray while there is still time to pray.

Sin Shock

Ezra 9:3-4  When I heard this, I tore my clothing, pulled hair from my head and beard, and sat down utterly shocked.  Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel came and sat with me because of this unfaithfulness of his people.  And I sat there utterly appalled until the time of the evening sacrifice.

Ezra had just been informed that many of the Israelites had intermarried with the people around them.  God had made it very clear that they were not to do it.  This was a grave sin for them.  By intermarrying with the pagan nations around them, they had defiled themselves.  They had weakened themselves by embracing the pagan gods of their spouses.

Ezra simply couldn’t believe it.  He was in a state of spiritual shock.  He didn’t know what to say or do.  He sat down and contemplated what he should do.  He couldn’t just ignore this sin. 

I wonder how we respond to the sin around us.  Have we grown so accustomed to it that we are no longer in shock over it?  Are we guilty of embracing it instead of resisting it?  Have we forgotten God’s commands and no longer live by them?  Have we let the thinking of the world around us take the edge off of what God says we must be like?  When was the last time any of us sat down in shock over how far we have wandered away from holy living?

We consider ourselves faithful followers of God, yet are we?  Are we really following the Lord into holiness of life?  I don’t think very many of us really grasp what it means to be holy.  We are not as separated from sin as we say we are.  We tend to call that which is unholy holy.  We justify ourselves instead of letting the Lord change us.  We select those things we want to be holy in and those things we don’t.  We fail to grasp that holiness is a way of life that affects every part of our being and living.  We don’t determine what holiness is, God does.  Living submissively to the Word of God makes us holy.  What God says is sin is sin.  Period.

Study, obey, and teach the Word of God.

Ezra 7:10  This was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of the LORD and to teach those laws and regulations to the people of the Israel.

Ezra had just arrived safely in Jerusalem.  His journey had not taken too long and he was kept safe from harm on the way.  The reason why the Lord had watched over him is found in today’s verse.

Two things really jump out at us from this verse.  First of all, Ezra had determined to study and obey the law of God.  It is good for us to determine in our hearts and minds to study the Word of God.  We will never have an adequate and correct understanding of it if we don’t study it.  We must be careful how much we rely on others for our understanding because no one has perfect knowledge and their understanding may not be right.  We must examine the Word for ourselves.  It is not enough to just study the Word; we must obey it as well.  All the knowledge and understanding in the world will not help us if we don’t live it.

The other thing we notice in today’s verse is that Ezra did not hoard what he learned from God’s Word.  He determined in his heart that he was going to teach others what he knew.  It was the main reason why Ezra made the journey to Jerusalem.  We too must determine in our hearts to pass on to others what we learn and live.  The desire to teach others comes from a genuine love for them.  If we love one another, we will want to help one another.  Teaching and preaching that flows from love accomplishes much.

If you are a teacher of the Word and you are not motivated by a love for those you teach, I ask that you examine your heart today.  I ask that you take your heart to the Lord and ask Him to give you a love bath.  If you are more duty bound than you are love bound, you are doing more harm than good. 

The Lord holds those who teach to a higher standard.  Teach from a heart of love.  Teach the whole truth of God’s Word regardless of whom you may be teaching.  And, live what you teach.  If you do these things, God will use you to accomplish great things for Him.