"May Thy glorious name be blessed and exalted above all blessing and praise. "
Nehemiah 9:5
GOD IS SOMEBODY
Read It: Nehemiah 9:5-15
You know what happens when you get serious about prayer and getting ting your life clean before God? You start realizing who He really is, what He has done, and what He can do. Just ask the Israelites of Nehemiah's day. When the people of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra, had prepared themselves spiritually, the leaders stood up and led the congregation in prayer-the longest prayer recorded in the Bible. This is one awesome prayer, so full of good stuff we could spend several eral weeks right here studying and meditating. One lesson we can learn from this prayer is right here in the first section, which is all about God. Note the repetition of the phrase "Thou didst," and you'll get the picture. In other words, the main purpose of prayer is to get us focusing on God, not to get His attention so He can focus on us. The Levites led the people ple in acknowledging that God is bigger, greater, and more glorious than they could have ever imagined. Why is this so important? Because we forget whom we are dealing with. If we're not careful, we can become like Pharaoh (v. 10), who said, "I am Pharaoh. Moses, you come down here talking about God this and God that. I am Pharaoh. I'm God around here!" But God said, "Say what?" Then He gave Pharaoh a lesson in power. That's why the Bible says that of all the sins God hates, pride is at the top of the list.
God hates a prideful look. He hates people expanding their chests, puffing themselves up, and saying, "I am somebody!" Says who? Somebody has been lying to those people. Pharaoh got all puffed up; then God blew on him and puffed him away! So we have men and women today who shake fists in the face of God, who basically say with their mouths or lives, "God, I don't need You." But you can't pray very long and very seriously and hold that attitude. When you start praying and humbling yourself before God, He starts revealing Himself to you and reminding you of what He has done. Think About It So many of our prayers begin with a nod to God, but then we start talking about us and never get back to Him.
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