Nehemiah 6:9b: A Heaven-Oriented Heart

"But now, O God, strengthen my hands." Nehemiah 6:9b

In Psalm 121:1-2, a few verses that I have been meditating upon throughout this week, the psalmist says this:

"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?

My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

We know from scripture that the LORD is our helper in time of need. But what does it look like to actually draw from the well of our LORD's help? Nehemiah is going to show us today.

Nehemiah was a man of God in the time of the end of the exile. In the beginning chapters of the book, we find the Nehemiah was a cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. Hearing that his people were in great distress, Nehemiah asked the king of he could leave his job as a cupbearer in order to go to Jerusalem and repair the walls (Remember: Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians!). The king grants his request, and Nehemiah travels to Jerusalem to start his construction project.

Along with many of the Israelites, Nehemiah leads this great project. Yet amidst their building, there is much opposition by nearby enemies. Their neighbors conspired against them, so much that each builder had a sword strapped at their side at all times, just in case they were attacked (Neh. 4:18). Yet amidst all of these struggles, we see Nehemiah, a great man of God, relying on his Heavenly Father at every turn.

When you read the book of Nehemiah, you find yourself on a journey. It's almost as if you're reading Nehemiah's personal "daily diary." Many practical building updates are given, but within the book, we also find various prayers of Nehemiah, and they are built right into the book. For example, amidst one of his struggles against surrounding enemies, right in the middle of his retelling of the story, Nehemiah simply says this: "But now, O God, strengthen my hands."

What we find here is a practical example of how we can rely on our God. This short, abrupt prayer from Nehemiah that we see in his book is great, but what it also shows us is the posture of Nehemiah's heart: at any given moment, and at any given time, Nehemiah was reliant upon the Lord his God. When troubles arose, Nehemiah didn't need to "get ready" to rely upon his God--he already was. He didn't need to open up his scriptures and meditate, go to church and get in the "right mindset," or sing a few worship songs. No. He simply had to manifest out loud the posture that was already in his heart: "But now, O God, strengthen my hands."

What I want to encourage us with today is this: what would it look like if we had this heart-posture before God as well? What if our hearts were so focused on God and his truth that when troubles arose, we could right away get on our knees and cry out to God? I know that in my own life, there's often a great delay between the trouble that arises in my life and my calling upon God to help. For Nehemiah, there was no delay. As soon as troubles arose, he went straight up to heaven, because within him was a heaven-oriented heart.

In application today, let us follow the example of Nehemiah. Let us meditate on scripture daily, that when trouble comes, that scripture would point us to God's help. Let us constantly remember God's great promises to us, that we might not get discouraged when trouble arises. Is this not what our Christ did when he was upon this earth, as he relied upon his Heavenly Father amidst every trouble he experienced? In the desert, he relied upon his Heavenly Father in prayer and rebuked temptation with scripture. Surely we ought to do the same today, as we keep our hearts heaven-oriented rather than bent on the things of this world!