11O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” [King Artaxerxes I]
Now I was cupbearer to the king.
How would God make you become the answer to the brokenness that you prayed about? How would God use you in the place where He puts you?
Meditate on this and share it with your friends
William Adams (1564–1620) is believed to be the first Englishman to reach Japan. Taking a liking to Adams, the ruling Japanese shogun made him his interpreter and personal advisor concerning the Western powers. Eventually, Adams was presented with two swords with rank of a Samurai. This showed just how much the Japanese revered Adams. Because William Adams served his foreign king well, he was also rewarded with greater opportunity for influence.
Centuries earlier, another man in a foreign country also had great influence over his king. Nehemiah was a cupbearer to Persian King Artaxerxes (Neh. 1:11). In the royal court, the cupbearer would test the wine before it was given to the king to protect him from poisoning. But this position also meant he had the king’s ear as a trusted advisor. Nehemiah’s integrity, administrative gifts, and wisdom made him a confidant to his ruler. The post was an important one. It implied a character of unusual trustworthiness. But no one expected a royal cupbearer to do anything very heroic. He lived in the inner part of the palace, and was necessarily excluded from the great deeds of the stirring outward world. Nehemiah also was evidently a humble and retiring man. His response to the story of the ruined condition of Jerusalem was just a flood of tears and prayer to the God of heaven. And had you seen those tears and heard that prayer, you might have thought that just another flower was drooping, another seed falling into the ground to die.
But this was not all. These prayers and tears were supplemented by an earnest purpose, which was maturing with every hour. He gave himself to God to be used, if God would have it so, as an instrument in the execution of His recorded purpose. He was a man of faith. It mattered little enough that he was only a cupbearer, for that was no barrier to God; indeed, God might work more efficiently through a frail, weak man, than through the prince, the soldier, or the orator, since He cannot give His glory to another. What a glorious faith was his, which dared to believe that through his yielded life God could pour His mighty rivers! Why do we not yield ourselves in our helplessness to God, and ask Him to work through us, to fulfill His mighty purposes?
We kneel, how weak! We rise, how full of power! Why therefore should we do ourselves this wrong Or others— that we are not always strong!” (Meyer, F. B. Our Daily Homily)
Like Nehemiah, each of us has been given a unique sphere of influence. Raising children, church or community work, and employment all provide a platform where we can have a beneficial effect on others.
Even a little example can be a big influence for Christ. Has the Lord placed someone in your life upon whom you can have an influence?
It’s interesting how the past few weeks and arguably even years, I have felt this increased frustration and anger, yet just two days ago, God was able to lift that tension and heavy weight on my shoulder that almost broke me. Even before I dived into the devo, I started praying over those who have hurt me and truthfully, it was HARD. It’s easier to pray for myself or my friends who I care about, but ultimately that’s comfortable and easy. I think by praying over the people who have hurt me, it has softened my heart towards them even more. It doesn’t make me excuse or justify their behavior, but instead, work towards a heart of forgiveness and desire to want them to grow more like Christ. I can see that God is definitely stretching me in uncomfortable areas, but I’m truly thankful for that. Realistically it’s going to be an arduous journey, but I’d rather be in the long haul with Jesus than with anyone or anything else.
From our brother Brian:
Day 4: The selfish part of me is thinking “be careful what you ask [pray] for.” Why? Bc it can come with great responsibility!
Prayer and the answer to prayer come in 2 parts.
One: OUR willingness to be used for the glory of God. To be used to fix any type of brokenness in this world takes sacrifice. It may not be an “easy” walk. This is why we need to rely on God for any mission.
Second: GOD’S willingness to use us for His glory. we all have a purpose and we are part of Gods redeeming story. God knows our heart and if He finds favor and uses us, you best bet He will empower us for “victory”.
It’s a two way street. Our effort and God’s. During that journey where He uses us, we need to stay faithful and obedient trusting in God despite any hardships. As you can see with many stories in the Bible, ie king Saul, the entire Jewish community, our story and purpose may shift.
May I leave a legacy that is pleasing to God and may He use me to bring the lost back to Him. That’s the ultimate end goal brokenness that needs to be fixed.
Reflection from Ruby:
Through acknowledging my weakness and accepting it, God is able to use me to fulfill his purpose. To recognize that weakness is not a shame, but opportunities to make God’s power make Himself known to more people and weakness serve a reminder that every trial we struggle we have the privilege to hand to battle to God who will fight to win for us.
In today’s verse from Nehemiah’s prayer, the word “servant” stood out to me.
I pray that I would be willing to have a servant heart even in my brokenness to become apart of the answer to my prayers. It’s a lot easier to sit in our pain or even avoid it completely but I appreciate seeing how Nehemiah was mourning yet he was so willing to be a servant. Nehemiah prayed for God’s blessing and favor as he was the cupbearer to the king so that he could be used in the situation. I am in fact very broken without Jesus. However, I pray that God would use me where I am to serve His kingdom.
I’ve been praying for over 20 years for my patients who are opioid-dependent..since before it was in the news. Back then, God called me to join Him in the work of revival that He is doing in that community.
When I think about Nehemiah, God granted him favor with King Artaxerxes because of 1) his sterling character 2) his excellence. The same can be said of Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar.
I need to commit daily to being excellent in my craft and also holiness…then God can grant me favor in my patients’ eyes to earn the right to speak life-giving words from Him to them.
In this passage I find that asking for God to be attentive to our prayers is easy, but it’s much harder for us to be attentive to God. I’m reminded that trusting His process and purpose may be arduous, but it’s absolutely necessary in order to truly see the full picture of what He was creating, how He was moving, and what He was doing in and around me. I know that I need to be more attentive, more reflective.
Mindset is also key—I personally need to restructure my mindset to think rather not why He would do this to me, but what is He doing for me? Currently, God has placed me in this weird, standstill time period between graduating and moving on to grad school. Honestly, I worry too much about making the next big step, and about what I need to do next to keep moving forward so that I don’t stop and fall short compared to others.
Upon reflection, I can see that God was intentional about putting me in this unique position in which I have the option to wait, to be still and listen to what He’s calling me to do, rather than jump to the next step altogether. I understand that all of the things that He’s done for me in the past few years have allowed me the opportunity to learn that I need to appreciate the small moments more, and not worry about rushing into anything.
Be grateful, be present, be attentive to His word and His plan.
I pray that He continues to open my eyes to notice and take in the small and mundane moments, and to cherish those and seek areas in which I can praise Him more as His servant.
God is showing me that I need to soften my heart and surrender to the Lord fully in order to change my ways. To have more patience and love towards others through everything that I do since I am a child of God. I see God using me as a vessel that is open and vulnerable so that I can create a space for others to share their brokenness and help them burden it. Lord I pray that these are words with the intentions to act and that You convict my heart to change my ungodly ways to lead a life that glorifies You.
I have found in my life that God can use anything and everything in our lives. The most powerful seem to always be our failures or our misfortunes. It also seems to be how God can pull us out of our brokenness of sin. As I reflect on this, I ultimately hold my onto my faith that whatever situation I am in good or bad, that God will ultimately redeem us and is always looking out for our best, in order to draw us closer to Him.