“Be earnest and unwearied in your prayer (life) alert and intent in your praying with thanksgiving” (Col 4:2; AMPC). In other words, we need to persevere in prayer and not give up even if answers are coming slower than we would like. (See also Luke 18:1-8). As I was reading this verse I was reminded of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was one of the Jewish exiles and he was cupbearer to the king of Persia. He got bad news from Judah that the wall of Jerusalem had been torn down and so he started praying. I noticed that in his prayer (Neh 1:4-11) he began by giving God praise and then he repented on behalf of the children of Israel who had turned away from God. Then he laid his petition before the Lord and it was very specific, “Please grant me success today by making the king favourable to me. Put it in his heart to be kind to me” (Neh 1:11; NLT). He then asked the king to give him a leave of absence so he could return to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. When the king asked him how he could help we are told that Nehemiah again prayed before he replied” (Neh 2:4,5; NLT). He prays once more in chapter 6, verse 14 when he is facing opposition to the building of the wall. In fact, Nehemiah endured a lot of opposition but he was obviously strong in faith because in the midst of persecution he declared, “The God of the heavens will grant us success” (Neh 2:20; NLT).

It seems that Nehemiah was a man of prayer, as we as Christians should be. He prayed before speaking or acting and God gave Nehemiah success and he and his team rebuilt the wall in just 52 days.