Essay: Nehemiah’s Quick Prayer

 “Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid.

And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?

Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. 

And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.”

(Nehemiah 2:2-5)

God had allowed the Jews in Judah to be taken captive by the Babylonians years earlier for persistent, unrepentant sin. The Babylonians were later defeated by the Persians. Artaxerxes was the Persian king. Nehemiah, a Jew, was his cupbearer. One day Nehemiah appeared before the king. As our passage says, the king saw that something was wrong with Nehemiah. He wanted to know what the problem was.

Nehemiah told him how Jerusalem had been destroyed. He may never have expected the king to reply as he did, but the king asked,“For what dost thou make request?” In other words, “What do you want?” Nehemiah prayed quickly: “So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king,…” 

Nehemiah’s prayer had to be brief. The king obviously expected an answer right away. Nehemiah was not going to say, “Hold on, your highness, let me pray,” then bow his head and close his eyes and pray for several minutes as the king sat waiting. Yet God heard and answered Nehemiah’s prayer, brief as it was.

Nehemiah asked for a leave of absence to build Jerusalem. The king said ok. Then Nehemiah asked for letters to the governors in the territories he would cross, to let them know he had the king’s blessing. The king gave them. Then Nehemiah asked for a letter to the keeper of the king’s forest for lumber to do the necessary building projects. Those were big requests, but the king granted all of them. Nehemiah wrote that the king granted them  “…according to the good hand of my God upon me.” (Nehemiah 2:8)

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” We do not have kings in America. Yet this verse can be applied to the hearts of the president, senators, governors, mayors, judges, and all our leaders. Their hearts are in God’s hand.

Some leaders may seem so hard-hearted and ungodly as to be beyond hope. Yet no one is beyond hope. “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope:” (Ecclesiastes 9:4) The first four chapters of the book of Daniel tell how God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar, the powerful king of Babylon. The way God dealt with him tells us no leader anywhere is too powerful for God to deal with. 1 Timothy 2:2 says to pray “For kings, and for all that are in authority;” Pray for our leaders to receive Jesus as their Saviour.

Nehemiah’s quick prayer is also an important lesson for you if you are a police officer. When you get a call of, say, “shots fired,” adrenaline starts to pump. Your mind races. The radio blares with cars calling to respond. The dispatcher gives further info as it comes in. You hit the gas and fly down the street, lights and siren on, watching traffic. As you focus on your tactical response, do something else. Pray for God’s help. Don’t slow down, but pray. Keep your eyes open, but pray. Do what you have to do, but also pray.

The greatest peace of mind you can have is knowing you will be in heaven when you die. To see from the Bible how you can have that peace of mind by receiving the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour, please go to www.clevelandbaptist.org(opens in new tab), click “Helpful Links,” then “How Do I Go to Heaven?”

Brian Miller 8/19/2026