Daily Affirmations - Day 4 - Resolute Wisdom - Grounded in Prayer
- Alisa B.
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
Day 4: Grounded in Prayer
One day I went to the house of Shemaiah… He said, “Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you.” But… I realized that God had not sent him… (Nehemiah 6:10,11,12).
Our Father in heaven, Your divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life... (2 Peter 1:2-3). "Everything we need" includes wisdom, for the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6). And among the benefits of wisdom, is the promise that:
Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways (Proverbs 2:12-15).
You gave this wisdom to Nehemiah, who would not be distracted from carrying on a great project— the work You had assigned—not by coaxing or by cajolery; not by beguilement or by flattery; not by schemes or by conspiracy, not by threat or by intimidation. Nehemiah understood that not everyone who comes "in the name of the Lord," seeking to engage us "in the house of the Lord," with "a message from the Lord," is of the Lord (Nehemiah 6:10-13).
O Father, on our own we are no match for the ways of wicked men. We often do not understand what it means in an every day sense that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).
We are too often unaware of the schemes and deceptions that originate in the spiritual and manifest in the natural. And so we become susceptible to the flattery that props up our idols, the lies that indulge our lusts, the agendas that advance our own kingdoms and the treachery that builds us companion thrones with darkness.
But Nehemiah lived out the truth of Your promise, [The Lord) guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones (Proverbs 2:8). And he describes his first line of defense, But I prayed, "Now strengthen my hands" (Nehemiah 6:9).
Father, we cry out to You. Our defense, too, is grounded in prayer (Ephesians 6:18), and in the armor You have given us (Ephesians 6:10-17). Open our eyes. Help us to discern truth from the treachery of the enemy.
You have equipped us with spears, shields, bows and armor. Help us to do our work with one hand... a weapon in the other... and... our sword at our side (Nehemiah 4:16-18). And remind us of the encouraging words Nehemiah spoke to the people of God:
“Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes...” “Our God will fight for us” (Nehemiah 4:14, 20).
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