“They were all trying to frighten us, thinking,
“Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”
But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.” – Nehemiah 6:9 (NIV)
Nehemiah worries me
All that talk of building a wall,
and enforcing segregation from neighbours.
And those reforms he insists upon:
tithing, Sabbath-keeping, and forbidding intermarriage with foreign nations.
Nehemiah is the project manager working with Ezra,
re-building temple and city walls
and renovating faith in changed circumstances.
It wasn’t easy.
The Book of Nehemiah is a spiritual memoir,
his first-person journal of his work,
and the deepest cries of his heart.
In the end, that’s what took my heart
the pop-up prayers inserted in his reports,
his woes held in tension with his courage,
his pleas in times of trouble,
and his spontaneous bursts of blessings.
In the daily,
Nehemiah breaks often into prayer.
And even in my uneasiness with his reforms,
there are mantras for today, like this one:
“Now strengthen my hands.”
A prayer for any-time.
Nehemiah prays in the middle of opposition and fatigue. Where do feel tired or discouraged right now? Are there “pop-up” or touchstone prayers in your spiritual memoir that sustain you?
In times of fear, communities are sometimes urged to protect themselves by drawing sharper lines. Where do you see calls to divide or exclude shaped by fear or stereotype? Are there ways you, unknowingly or with the best of intentions, contribute to separation? How might heart and hand respond in ways that resist harm (to yourself and others) and deepen understanding?
Trace your hands onto paper. Inside the outline, write: a task you are called to do, any fears that you may have, and write a prayer you most need. Then, write across the palms: “Now strengthen my hands.” Place the image somewhere visible this week as a quiet companion to your day and all it holds.
0 Comments