By Lynna Clark

How do you respond to fear? Do you pull the covers over your head and hide? The other day a field mouse was staggering around on our porch. When he saw me, he stuck his little head in a hole between the step and the ground. He tried to wiggle down out of sight, but his hinder parts were sticking out. I’m sure this seemed like a perfectly logical solution to his fear, probably because he had his beer goggles on. You see, we also have snails which are eating the plants on our porch. A friend told me that if you put beer out, the snails slither in and die. But it’s a happy, painless death. Anyway, we had a little mouse get in our house. Traps weren’t working, so we resorted to poison. Apparently the mouse on the porch had just come from the house and had tried to quench his thirst with the beer put out for the snails. No matter how hard he denied impending doom, his fate was sealed. I am glad to report, but also sufficiently sad, that the mouse in the house is no more.

Nehemiah was terrified. He was the taste tester for the king. He made sure no poison was in the soup of the day. So when he came before the king, looking sick and sad, alarms went off in the royal head. Nehemiah’s boss could literally cause the ax to fall. Severance package took on a whole new meaning. But because Nehemiah had prayed ahead of time for favor in the king’s eyes, God gave him a wise response during a terrifying experience. Chapter 2, verse 4 tells of his quick prayer to the God of heaven, and the king’s very favorable reply, “Well, how can I help you?” Verses following tell of Nehemiah’s list and how the king granted all his requests, “…because the gracious hand of God was upon him.” –vs. 8

Nehemiah did not go to the king all willy-nilly. He prayed. He waited til the time was right. Neh. 2:1 says, “…the following spring.” He asked God for favor, like we talked about yesterday. When the opportunity presented itself, he was ready. He sent up a quick prayer before answering. And he recognized it all happened because God was in charge.

Today- for our churches: Ask God to go ahead of us to the powers that be, so that when it is time to make decisions, or expand our ministry, or take a city for Christ, those who see us coming will make the path smooth. Pray for those God puts in our path, that they will say, “Well, how can I help you?” And that God will receive glory as we bring whole communities to Him!

More: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Psalm 4:3 Psalm 17:6,7