8 All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it. 9 But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night. (Nehemiah 4:8–9)
Even though the wall was connected and halfway up (4:6), while a psychological victory for sure, the Jews knew they were still vulnerable. Up to this time, attacks from the opposition were limited to words. Now the sabers were rattling.
Interestingly, the first order of business was to pray. Thought here is that this was not a hysterical reaction, but in Nehemiah’s case, reflexive. It was not evoked when “all else failed.”
As we live life and experience its vicissitudes, its ups and downs, it should be instinctive to always pray first. We often forget when we quote Romans 8:28 that it is prefaced with “and we know that God causes” all things to work together for good. Every situation we encounter is God ordained. We experience nothing by chance. He is sovereign.
If he is such, to whom can we appeal other than him?
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