Reflections on God's Word

by Victoria Robinson

The strong leader and prophet Nehemiah, set a wonderful example of being slow to speak for us all to follow. After hearing the distressful news that his fellow Israelites were in trouble, he immediately prayed. Not so amazing since that is the usual action one would expect of a godly man. However, following this scenario is something quite interesting concerning prayer. When King Artaxerxes notices Nehemiah’s sadness and ask him what he wanted, Nehemiah does not just blurt out the overflow of pain in his heart. Instead, he pauses to pray before answering the king. We would do well to follow his example.

These two incidents are actually separated by three months. Nehemiah was a man with a strong conviction of the power of prayer and had prayed during this three-month period. One of his request was for God to grant him favor with King Artaxerxes. After praying for three months it would be easy to think he was “prayed up” and ready to speak up. Not this man who took prayer so seriously—he thought one more prayer was important enough to keep the king waiting.

Our Lord and Savior was an expert at not hurrying to blurt out the thoughts He held so tightly inside. When Pilate questioned Jesus where He was from, He did not immediately answer. When this was taking place, can’t you just imagine how uncomfortable the situation was as Jesus remained silent.

Girlfriends, we tend to look more at our horizontal relationships than our more important vertical relationship—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It would seem that Nehemiah being the cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, a very intimate relationship, would have just blurted out his needs to this powerful man. Instead he trusted more in his vertical relationship with his all-powerful God. A great example to remind us of the power of prayer.

Dearest girlfriends, let us always consider the importance of prayer before we speak.