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Prayer Focus: God reveals wickedness, gives wisdom and protects the faithful

April 21, 2021 All day

Nehemiah 6:9-14 NLT

9 They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with even greater determination. (But now, O God, strengthen my hands. ESV)

10 Later I went to visit Shemaiah son of Delaiah and grandson of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home. He said, “Let us meet together inside the Temple of God and bolt the doors shut. Your enemies are coming to kill you tonight.” 

11 But I replied, “Should someone in my position run from danger? Should someone in my position enter the Temple to save his life? No, I won’t do it!” 

12 I realized that God had not spoken to him, but that he had uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 

13 They were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin. Then they would be able to accuse and discredit me. 

14 Remember, O my God, all the evil things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And remember Noadiah the prophet and all the prophets like her who have tried to intimidate me.

Read/Meditate the Scripture: Nehemiah 6:9-14 NLT

Nehemiah equated hiding in the Temple of God to sin. There are two possible explanations: (1) only priests may come near the altar in the Temple of God. Numbers 18:7 stated “Any unauthorized person who comes too near the sanctuary will be put to death.” (2) Nehemiah would have abandoned God’s calling to rebuild the city walls by hiding in the Temple.  

Ask yourself: 

  • Are there any areas of your life where you use the cover of spirituality to sin? (If ‘yes’, confess your sins and ask God for forgiveness.)
  • Are you obedient to God’s calling in your life? (If ‘no’, confess your disobedience, ask God for forgiveness, and reaffirm your will to follow Him.)

PRAY

  • Ask God to reveal lies and falsehoods and to give you the courage to resist temptations and adversaries so that you will not sin. Be decisive towards sin like Nehemiah who said, “No. I won’t do it!”
  • Ask God to search you with the words of Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
  • Pray that everyone in ACC live in love and in unity.  Ask God to help us stay alert so we may face the world filled with untruths and that we will not be frightened into submission and not finish the work God commissioned us to do. For God said in Isaiah 55:11, “It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”