Just Get To The Point

And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven… *a very long bla bla bla*... and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer (Nehemiah 1:5-11).

Here is an example of a lengthy prayer by Nehemiah. He began by saying “I pray, Lord God of heaven.” And he went on and on, mentioning all kinds of things under the sun. As I scanned the contents of the whole prayer, I asked myself, "Is there actually a request in here? When is it finally going to come out?"

Ah… After 6 long verses, the request finally popped out. All he wanted was for God to “grant him mercy” in the sight of King Artaxerxes.

Mercy? Mercy for what? Apparently, Nehemiah wanted to go Judah to rebuild its walls. He wanted to ask for permission from King Artaxerxes. But being the king’s cupbearer, it was not going to be easy. That was why he asked God to grant him mercy from the king when he makes his request known to him.

One thing that struck me was, although Nehemiah was lengthy in the front part of his prayer, he was starkly brief when it came to making his request. He didn’t even bother to explain to God what he was planning to do, how he was going to do it, when he was going to do it, who the king was, how the king’s behaviour was like in granting favours, or what kind of outcome he desired from his negotiation with the king. All he asked from God is that He would grant him mercy in the sight of King Artaxerxes.

That shows something about Nehemiah’s mature understanding of prayer. He prays, knowing that an omniscient God hears him. Therefore, he does not pray condescendingly towards God, explaining details to Him as though He doesn’t already know them. He just keeps his request simple, and he entrusts the mechanism to God. He doesn’t tell God what to do, why He should do it, or how He should do it. He just presents his petition to God, and lets Him deal with the outcome. Because he knows that God knows better.

Nehemiah has taught us something about prayer. We often have the habit of approaching God as though we are approaching man. When we want to ask for permission from the boss to take a day off, we have to explain why, provide a rationale, persuade him of the necessity to do so, convince him of the urgency, or fill in a formal, written application.

I remember the kind of red tape one has to go through when organizing an event in campus. Even though your motives for doing it are pure and its benefits are obvious, you have to do all kinds of things: Fill in forms, write a proposal letter, explain your objectives, answer all the who, what, how, when, why, and where questions, book the facilities, and most of all, persuade the authorities to give you a smooth clearance so that your project run without any hindrance. Sometimes, you may feel as though you’re explaining things to a child. Because protocol will not assume that the unmentioned things are negligible. EVERY detail must be documented, so your every action can be tracked down and their approval of your project can be justified!

Sometimes, we mistakenly bring the same kind of attitude when we approach God in prayer. But God already knows everything, even before we pray. So let us approach God with simplicity in our requests, lest we come across as being condescending towards God.

Once, Peter tried to walk on water. When he started to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30) No explanation needed.