Skip to main content

Praying Effectively - Learn from Nehemiah of Bible


How to Pray Effectively

by Rick Warren

Please remember what you told your servant Moses: “If you sin, I will scatter you among the nations.” Nehemiah 1:8 (NLT)


Here are four secrets to answered prayer from the life of Nehemiah:

1. Base your request on God’s character. Pray like you know God ill answer you: “I’m expecting you to answer this prayer because of who you are. You are a faithful God. You are a great God. You are a loving God. You are a wonderful God. You can handle this problem, God!"

2. Confess the sins of which you’re aware. After Nehemiah bases his prayer on who God is, he confesses his sins. He says, “We’ve sinned.” He says “I confess . . . myself . . . my father’s house . . .we have acted wickedly . . . we have not obeyed.” It wasn’t Nehemiah’s fault that Israel went into captivity. He wasn’t even born when it happened and he was most likely born in captivity. Yet, he’s including himself in the national sins. He says, “I’ve been a part of the problem.”

3. Claim the promises of God. Nehemiah prays to the Lord, saying, “I want you to remember what you told your servant Moses.” Can you imagine saying “remember” to God? Nehemiah reminds God of a promise he made to the nation of Israel. In effect, he prays, “God, you warned through Moses that if we were unfaithful, we would lose the land of Israel. But you also promised that if we repent, you’d give it back to us.”

Does God have to be reminded? No. Does he forget what he’s promised? No. Then why do we do this? Because it helps us remember what God has promised.

4. Be very specific in what you ask for. If you want specific answers to prayer, then make specific requests. If your prayers consist of general requests, how will you know if they’re answered? Nehemiah is not hesitant to pray for success. He’s very bold in his praying. Have you ever prayed, “Lord, make me successful?” If you haven’t, why haven’t you? What is the alternative? A failure?

Is it okay to ask God to make you successful? It all depends on your definition of success! I believe a good definition of success is: “Fulfilling God’s purpose for my life in faith, love, and the power of the Holy Spirit, and expecting the results from God.” That is a worthy life objective that you should be able to pray for with confidence.

Consider this: If you can’t ask God to make you a success at what you’re doing, you should be doing something else. God doesn’t want you to waste your life.


© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.



Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif.,
one of America's largest and best-known churches. In addition, Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller

The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, which was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th Century. He is also founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for ministers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lord is my Light and the Rock of salvation

Read Pslams 27:1 - 3 1 THE LORD is my Light and my Salvation--whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. 3 Though a host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, [even then] in this will I be confident. In this Psalm, the author sings with confidence "The Lord is my light and the rock of my salvation. Whom shall I fear, whom shall I fear". Important fact to note is the confidence with which he sings. Many times, we go through our days without confidence and peace that we observe in the psalmist. The author goes to the extent of declaring that he will not be afraid even if an enemy encamps around him or a war comes up. There is a promise in the Bible, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything with prayers and thanksgiving submit your requests to God and the
2 comments
Read more

Joy in the midst of Nazi Concentration camps

The well known survivor of Nazi concentration camps by God's grace, Corrie Ten Boom writes in her book titled, " A Prisoner and yet... " While being imprisoned at Vught prison camp by Nazis, the women of Harlem (A town in Holland from where Corrie Ten Boom hails from) used to sing the following song under their pressing conditions: " We never let our courage fall, We hold our heads up high. They never, never will prevail, No matter how they try. Onward we press, our word is 'yes', Heads up, you women of Vught, heads up. " Their faith in the living God is the source of their confidence to sing the above song under such a horrible in-human treatment by Nazis. What an assurance of peace it is to know that the Joy of the Lord is indeed our strength as we go through the pressures of life and fight against the principalities of this dark world. It is in such circumstances as these that the character of christ is formed in us. Unless the seed dies, it canno
Post a Comment
Read more

A life that lost it's focus

"Saul died for his trespass against the Lord [in sparing Amalek], for his unfaithfulness in not keeping God's word, and also for consulting [a medium with] a spirit of the dead to inquire pleadingly of it, And inquired not so of the Lord [in earnest penitence] ..." 1 Chronicles 10:13,14 Saul, the first king of Israel, began his walk very well. It was the ideal start any one could look for - with all the favor from God and Prophet Samuel, being the tallest one among the people, being the first king of Israel. But along the way, he lost the focus and the end was a miserable and sad one. I am sure you will agree with me that it is how you finish, is more important than how you start . It is definitely an advantage to start well, but finishing is more crucial. The above verse made me think on why Saul's end was a sad one? What are the lessons that I could learn from him? He disobeyed the specific command to destroy the Amalekites Not keeping God's word - In general
Post a Comment
Read more