The God To Whom We Pray - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, February 9th. Our image of God affects how we relate to Him, so it's vitally important that we know the truth about our Heavenly Father. Let's listen in to gain a better understanding of the God to whom we pray. Is the God whom you worship big enough to handle all the challenges you bring to Him in life?

All of us bring Him all different kinds, and they come from all different avenues, and oftentimes they come suddenly, sometimes we can see them coming a long ways down the track. All different kinds of challenges, all the way from things that are material like finances or things that are emotional like loneliness. Is the God you worship big enough to handle all of those challenges? Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to Nehemiah, because in this passage of Scripture, I believe the most important element in our prayer life is to be found.

And while there are many things that are very important, I believe there's one thing that overrides all the rest. And probably one of the reasons that many people's prayers are not answered is because they're not aware of this. And oftentimes we'll bring out challenges to them and think, well, Lord, I've told you about it, now what? Or oftentimes people will say well, you know, I do pray, but somehow I don't seem to have the assurance, I don't seem to have the confidence, I don't seem to have the faith.

And so oftentimes their prayers just trail off into what they would consider failure, because nothing ever happens. It just may be that here is one of the primary reasons. Let me give you a little background. You remember that the nation of Israel or the nation of Judah was taken away in Babylonian captivity, and many of the people were killed. Many of the people were taken away as slaves. And Jeremiah had prophesied that it would be 70 years before they could go back.

And so those 70 years are over now. And here's Nehemiah who becomes a leader among those who lead the people of Israel, God's Hebrews, back to the nation that is theirs, back to rebuild Jerusalem, rebuild the walls, rebuild the gates. And so it is a very encouraging time, but a very despairing time for those people. And this first chapter is about a man who prayed just like you and I prayed.

He had a challenge just like you and I have oftentimes challenges in life. And I want you to see how God worked in his life, because it's a beautiful pattern, a very encouraging pattern for all of us who pray to our Heavenly Father. So let's begin with this first verse that the Bible says, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hackeliah. Now it happened in the month Kislev in the 20th year while I was in Sus of the capital, that Hanani, one of my brothers and some men from Judah came, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the walls of Jerusalem are broken down and its gates are burned with fire. Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourn for days. And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open to hear the prayer of thy servant, which I am praying before thee now day and night. On behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against thee, I and my Father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against thee and have not kept the commandments nor the statutes nor the ordinances which thou didst command thy servant Moses. Remember the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote parts of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause my name to dwell. And they are thy servants and thy people whom thou didst redeem by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, may thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and the prayer of thy servants who delight to revere thy name and make thy servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man."

Now, I was the cupbearer to the king. Now, if I should ask you, what is your view of God? You could probably tell me something about what you believe about Him. How often does your view of God come up? How often does it arise? How often does it come to the forefront when you're praying? So let's look at His prayer for just a moment, ask the question, what is it that motivated Him to pray this prayer? Well, first of all, bad news. Bad news usually motivates us to pray. That is, we hear something that is very difficult for us to have to face some challenge.

We're motivated to pray. So bad news, He heard about the walls of the city being broken down. And the tragedy of that was this, that meant all of their enemies had access to pillage the city.

The gates were burned down, which means they could get through. And so they were in a desperate condition. They had been, by the hostilities of those about them, had been over and over and over again suffering as a result of broken down walls, burned down, burned the gates. And so when He hears this, the second thing that motivates Him is not only bad news, but He feels very burdened.

Now listen to what it says. It says when He heard that, He says, I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. So He began to feel very burdened about it. As a result of feeling burdened about it, I'm sure God began to speak to His heart, and He got into conviction and began to ask the question, what is it that I can do?

Here He is, a servant of King Artaxerxes, and He's in the palace, and He has a relationship with him, but what in the world could He possibly do when the only thing He can do is to serve the King? So He was asking the question and more than likely feeling more and more conviction. That's why He kept on praying and kept on fasting and kept on crying out to God. I think the fourth thing that motivated Him was this, that this seemed to be such an absolutely impossible situation, and He felt so helpless to do anything about it, but He kept on praying and kept on crying out to God. Now what was the result of His prayer?

Well, the result of His prayer is indeed miraculous because it is a miraculous answer to His prayer, and I can just give you two or three verses here as we go through these. Now think about this for a moment. First of all, remember what His position is. He is simply a servant, and so He comes to serve the King, and the King whom He had served many, many times and probably several years, on this particular day says, Now, my, you don't look very well. You look sad. In fact, you looked a little depressed.

What's the matter? Well, He said, He suddenly was gripped with fear, but He knew that somebody whispered a prayer to the Father, and so He told him, He said, Well, I've heard the bad news about Jerusalem and all my people over there who are suffering, and so they got into this conversation. The result of the conversation was this. He said, I'd like to be able to go back and help them. Now, this was a very unusual thing for Him to ask, and so the King and his wife, the Queen said, Well, how long would you need to be gone? So He told him, He had to be gone for a while, and He said, Not only that, I would need some materials. He said, I don't have anything to rebuild the walls and the gates with, and so He said, Not only that, He said, I would need some documents from you that said to the forester keepers that I could have all that I needed. Not only that, He said, I would need somebody to protect us on our trip, because you know how dangerous it is to travel from Assousa all the way to Jerusalem.

How many people would be attacking us? And so as a result of the conversation, the King gave him everything He asked for. Answer number one. Then the Scripture says that He had a safe trip there.

Answer number two. Answer number three is when He got there, the Scripture says, that is, He began to talk with the people. The Scripture says, if you'll notice in chapter two, in verse 18, I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the King's words which He had spoken to me. Then they said, Let us arise and build so they put their hands to the good work. That is, He suddenly had the cooperation of all the people there who were willing to say with Him, Listen, we believe that the Lord has sent you, and so we're willing to cooperate.

We are willing to go to work. And so as you see going through these first few chapters, that over and over and over again, every single thing that He'd requested of God and even more, God answered. Then when you come, if you'll notice, to the sixth chapter, and the fifteenth and sixteenth verse says, So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of the month Elo in fifty-two days.

And it came about when all of our enemies heard of it, and all the nations surrounding us saw it. They lost their confidence, for they recognized that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God. Now, here is the man who gets bad news. He gets burdened. He gets under conviction.

He knows it's absolutely impossible for him to do anything about it. And God, he begins to cry out to God. God begins to answer his prayer, and God provides every single thing he needs to meet the challenge before him. And it's interesting that you'll find in Nehemiah a man of great confidence. And I think one of the reasons that he has such confidence is because he understands and knows the nature and the person of the God to whom he prays. And if you look through these chapters, what you'll notice is how often that confidence is expressed.

Let me give you a couple of them in chapter two. He says, the latter part of verse eight, he says, And the king granted them to me, that is all the things that he'd asked, because the good hand of my God was upon me. And he says, in verse 18, I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me. And he says, The God of heaven will give us success. And on he goes about what God had done for them.

And each time they prayed and how the Lord answered their prayer. Now, when I think about that, I think about the different kinds of challenges we meet, certainly maybe not as great as that. But the challenge to you and me that we meet in our life, at that moment in our life, it's very important. That moment is very big. And sometimes it looks gigantic.

And sometimes it may look absolutely impossible. Well, how do we respond? And why do we respond the way we respond? Do we come to God with boldness? And do we come with him to him with absolute confidence and assurance that God is not going to hear but he's going to answer our prayer? What is it about this man that caused him to have such absolute confidence, such boldness and such assurance that God would hear him? Well, I want us to notice this prayer.

This is where I want us to spend our time primarily. Look at the prayer in verse 5 that he prayed. He says, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness for those who love him and keep his commandments. Now, he continues his prayer a little later on, but this is the prayer I want us to notice primarily here. And that is, here's a man who has a view of God that brings him such absolute confidence and overwhelming assurance that God is indeed going to hear his prayer. Now, let me just say that I think the most important aspect of prayer, there are lots of elements in prayer, but the most important element in prayer I believe is the view of our God. Who is this God to whom I'm praying? My view of God is the bottom line, the foundation of all of my praying. To whom am I praying?

So I want you to look at three words here now, and I want you to jot them down if you will, and because I'm going to ask you to give them back to me in just a few moments and to respond to something. I want you to notice this prayer because what we're looking at here is this man's view of God. I mean, he was a tremendous leader. I don't think Nehemiah knew what his capacity and his potential was as a servant, tasting food and tasting wine. But when God sent him on this mission, God did a marvelous work in his life. And I want you to notice this prayer, and I want us to look at these words.

Notice first of all what he says. He says, Oh, Lord God. Now, I want you to look at the word Lord. Well, what did he mean when he said, Oh, Lord, I believe Nehemiah understood who this God was to whom he was praying. I believe he understood clearly who this God was.

Because, you see, the word Jehovah to him meant the God who is eternal in his being, the God who is self-existent, that is, nobody brought him into being and nobody can take him out of being. This is the God who is absolutely faithful to every single one of his promises. This is why he says, An awesome God who preserves the covenant and loving kindness of those who love him and keep his commandments.

This was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the God who loved them. This is the God of grace. This is the God of mercy. This is the God of justice. This is the God who cared for his people.

This is the God who rescued them. This is a God of loving kindness and tender mercy told them. And so when he says here, Oh, Lord God, this is the God who feels the heavens. This is the God in whose presence everything, everywhere is in the presence of this God. This is the awesome God of mankind.

So when he says, begins his prayer and says, Oh, Lord God, he knew exactly to whom he was speaking. Now notice that second word is God. This is the word Elohim. And this is the word that singles out God as the God who is infinite in his being, infinite in his power, who has all power.

He's the sovereign God of this universe. So oftentimes when you hear these men and women in the Old Testament talking about the Lord God, why wouldn't they just use one word? Why don't you just say Lord? Why don't you just say God?

Because they understood the full meaning of these words. And if you'll notice here, he says he is a keeper of his covenant for those who love him and keep his commandments. Now, I want you to look at one other word for God here. Notice if you will, in the 11th verse, when he comes down to the 11th verse, having confessed the sins of his people, if you'll notice that word Lord is in little letters, capital L, little o r d. What is that word?

That word is Adonai. And that is the word that indicates God's rulership. That is, he is the one who is Lord over all.

So let me ask you a question. How many times when you come to God in prayer, do you stop to think who he is? Or do you just simply say Lord, God, Jesus? How many times do we stop to think about who is this Lord? And this is why I think if you read the prayers of the Old Testament, how often they would say, Oh, Lord God, then they usually will use some words to describe something about him. But is it not true that most of us we pray, we will say, Now, Lord, here's what I need.

God, here's what I want. And instead of making putting any emphasis on the personhood, we put our emphasis on what we want this God to do for us. And so what you notice what he says here now, he says, Look at this verse, Oh, Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, great referring to God's power and might and ability to do anything and all things. But then he says he is great and what great and awesome. Now we sing oftentimes about our awesome God, what in the world do we mean by awesome God?

Well, usually, when we talk about awesome people usually relegate that or think in terms of bigness, size, largeness, how great something is in size. That's not what this means. When he talks about our great and awesome God, that word awesome here means reverence that is to be feared. When the Bible says we're to fear God, that does not mean I'm to be afraid of him or scared of him. But it means I am to revere him. Listen, as the righteous, holy God that he is, we think in terms of Jehovah, this is the righteousness of God. This is the holiness of God.

That word encompasses so much about him, not only his grace and love and mercy and kindness and goodness, but his justice, his holiness and his righteousness. We're coming to that. That's the God we're coming to. Will it make any difference what I ask? Yes, it will. Will it make any difference about my response?

Yes, it will. And so when he says our great and awesome God, O Lord God of heaven, and he says the great and awesome God, one who is to be respected, one is to be revered, one is to be praised, one is to be worshiped, one before whom we are to stand and sit and kneel humbly before him. That's who he is. I want you to look, if you will, in Revelation chapter one. It's interesting when you look at, in the last book of the Bible, what was their attitude?

What's their response? Listen to, look at John's response in the presence of Jesus. Look, if you will, in verse 17. Here he's seeing this great vision of the Lord Jesus, and he says, he says, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as a dead man, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last. Why would John fall as if a dead man in the presence of Jesus? Because, listen, because of the awesome holiness and righteousness and absolute indescribable purity of the Son of God. These earthbound minds of ours, we can, we'll never be able to understand what absolute purity is, absolute moral holiness is. We'll never be able to understand that in all of its fullness until we stand in the presence of God. He fell upon his face as dead.

When you turn to the fourth chapter, for example, look at this. Here the twenty-four elders, verse nine of chapter four, And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, and the twenty-four elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For that is, create all things, and because of thy will they existed and were created. Falling down before him, acknowledging who he is. When I think about oftentimes people today, when you talk about praying, they don't want to get on their knees. They say, Well, I don't have to get on my knees.

No, you don't. You don't have to kneel to pray. But you know, when I think about who he is, when I think about the awesome righteousness and holiness and the greatness and the power and the might and the infinite ness of God in every single, listen, in every single characteristic, in every single attribute of God, it is the absolute perfection of everything it could possibly be. And this is the God who has chosen to relate to you and me sinful human beings, unworthy of his presence, unworthy of his blessing, unworthy of anything that comes our way. And yet he has chosen to relate himself to us. If that should not get us on our knees and on our face before Almighty God, tell me what should. This is Almighty God in all of his power and awesome greatness. And yet what does he do?

He's willing to relate to you and to me on a warm, intimate, personal basis. Thank you for listening to The God To Whom We Pray. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.