Been back from Nicaragua for about 5 weeks now. I'm living in Lynchburg and have found myself to be very lonely at times. However, God has been using this to grow me in ways I haven't exactly been doing very well in; this including my devotions. Previous to this summer I must admit I wasn't very interested in what the Bible had to say and almost was bored with it. Now, I can't get enough of it. I am more in love with my Jesus now than I ever have been before. I understand and appreciate him with every move I make. Nothing goes without prayer. All I want is what God wants; and he hasn't proven me wrong yet. Right now I'm in Nehemiah, and find little treasures in this Old Testament book <3
This is a part of Nehemiah that I find irresistible. It is the longest prayer recorded in the Old Testament and is a part of one of the greatest revivals. This might be long, but every word is God Breathed and I really want to explain why I love it.
[And Ezra said], You are the Lord, You alone; You have made the heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and You preserve them all, and the hosts of heaven worship you. You are the Lord, the God Who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the name Abraham. You found his heart faithful before You, and You made the covenant with him to give his descendants the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amourite, Perizzite, Jebusite, and Girgashite. And You have fulfilled Your promise, for You are just and righteous. You saw our fathers' affliction in Egypt, and You heard their cry at the Red Sea. You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for You knew that they dealt insolently against the Israelites. And You got for Yourself a name, as it is today. You divided the sea before them, so that they went through its midst on dry land; their persecutors You threw into the depths, as a stone into mighty waters. Moreover, by a pillar of cloud You led them by day, and by a pillar of fire by night to light the way they should go. You came down also upon Mount Sinai and spoke with them from Heaven and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. And You made known to them Your holy Sabbath and gave them commandments, statutes, and a law through Moses Your servant. you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst; and You told them to go in and possess the land You had sworn to give them. But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks, and did not heed Your commandments. They refused to obey, nor were they mindful of Your wonders and miracles which You did among them; but they stiffened their necks and in their rebellion appointed a captain, that they might return to their bondage (in Egypt), but You are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great steadfast love; and You did not forsake them. Even when they had made for themselves a molten calf and said, This is your god, who brought you out of Egypt, and had committed great and contemptible blasphemies, You in Your great mercy forsook them not in the wilderness; the pillar of the could departed not from them by day to lead them in the way, nor the pillar of fire by night to light the way they should go. You also gave Your good Spirit to instruct them, and withheld not Your manna from them, and gave water for their thirst. Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. Also You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they possessed the land of Sihon and king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. Their children You also multiplied as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land which you told their fathers they should go in and possess. So the descendants went in and possess the land; and You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would. And they captured fortified cities and a rich land and took possession of houses full of all good things, cisterns hewn out, vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in Your great goodness. Yet they were disobedient and rebelled against You and cast Your law behind their back and killed Your prophets who accused and warned them to turn to You again; and they committed great and contemptible blasphemies. Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who distressed them. In the time of their suffering when they cried to You, You heard them fr4om heaven, and according to Your abundant mercy You have them deliverers, who saved them from their enemies. But after they had rest, they did evil again before You; therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over the, yet when they turned and cried to You, You heard them from heave, and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies. And reproved and warned them, that You might bring them again to Your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your ordinances, which by keeping, a man shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder, stiffened their neck, and would not listen. Yet You bored with them many years more and reproved and warned them by Your Spirit through Your prophets; still they would not listen. Therefore You gave them into the power of the peoples of the lands. Yet in Your great mercies You did not utterly consume them or forsake them, for You are a gracious and merciful God. Now therefore, our God, the great, might, and terrible God,who keeps covenant and mercy and loving-kindness, let not all the trouble and hardship seem little to You-the hardship that has come upon us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and on all Your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria to this day. however, You are just in all that has come upon us; for You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly; Our kings, our princes, our priests, our fathers have not kept Your law or hearkened to Your commandments and Your warnings and reproofs which You gave them. They did not serve You in their kingdom, and in Your great goodness that You gave them and in the large and rich land You set before them, nor did they turn from their wicked works. Behold, we hare slaves this day, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat the fruit and the good of it, behold, we are slaves in it. And its rich yield goes to the kings whom You have set over us because of our sings; they have power also over our bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure. And we are in great distress. Because of all this, we make a firm and sure written covenant, and our princes, Levites, and priests set their seal to it.
--Nehemiah 9:1-38
I absolutely adore this prayer. It is a prayer of worship to a God who has been faithful to his servants who have not. It can be a prayer for those of us (or just me) who know that I have sinned against my God and turn away from Him all too often -- but yet every time I turn to Him, He takes me back.
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