But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Neh. 4:9
There are three ways Christians respond to difficult situations. The first group employs all resources at their disposal to resolve the issue. When that fails, they remember there is God, and that is when they pray.
The second group has a greater awareness of God and what they do up front in a crisis’s situation is to pray. The prayer, however, is only a prelude. Their hope and way of resolving the problem is basically the same as the first group. The only difference is that they started with prayer. When the issue is not resolved, they resort to more praying.
There is a third group. For them, prayer is the means to resolve all problems. They take time to seek God’s face in prayer and wait for a word from Him on how they should proceed. Sometimes God resolves the problem without them doing anything else. Other times He directs them specifically on what to do.
When we are where God wants us to be and doing what He wants us to do, then when challenges arise, we come boldly before God in prayer and He will tell us what to do. This was the situation with Nehemiah and the returnees who were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.
We must rely on prayer primarily and then when God instructs us on next steps, we will then comply. Charting our path and tagging praying at some point is human way which is doomed to fail.
Author: Rev. Sunday Bwanhot
Rev. Sunday Bwanhot is EMS/SIM Missionary. He serves as Team leader of SIM Culture Connexions; Pastors of ECWA Chicago and ECWA USA DCC Chairman.
