Bible Study on Nehemiah: Nehemiah 1

Nehemiah 1: Bible Study on Prayer.

Introduction

Nehemiah's key to success to start his mission was the power of pray. From his pray we could see that he believed more in God than international political situation that supported his mission. In that time, Egypt was an enemy for Persia Empire. Judea province that closed with Egypt was important for Persia. So, it would give benefits for Persia to maintain good relationship with Jews. Of course, Nehemiah knew this political situation, but he still prayed before he asked for Artaxerxes' permission. We will study the powerful pray that Nehemiah did, so we could follow his example.

Questions Guide:

1. Do you see Nehemiah’s concern to his nation and Jerusalem (verse 2)? Explain! What were things that stimulated his concern(verse 9 and 10)?

2. What kind of concerns that were shown by Nehemiah when he heard bad news about his nation and Jerusalem (4)? What was the relationship between his concern with his action to pray?

3. What did Nehemiah know about God (5)?. Why did Nehemiah combine his request with sin confession (6)? What was the relationship between his understanding of God and his pray?

4. Did Nehemiah’s sin confession show his humility (6-7)? Explain! What was the role of his understanding of the words of God in his pray (8-9)? Why did Nehemiah emphasize Jehudah’s identity in front of LORD ?

5. What was Nehemiah’s special requests (11)? Why was the request asked in the very end of his pray? If you notice, in his pray he started his sentences with the word ‘let’. What does it mean?

6. What is your definition about the powerful pray? What is the relationship between powerful pray and our concern? According to the questions number 1-5, mention the basic and vital elements that were found in Nehemiah’s pray? Are those basic elements the assurance that our pray will be powerful? Evaluate the way you pray all these times! Are there something you need to fix to have powerful pray? Share them!