Nehemiah 2:1-8 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine… We make a great many mistakes about prayer; and one of them is that we don't think we have prayed properly unless we have prayed a certain time. But a few moments of real prayer are better than many minutes of only formal prayer. "For my own part," says a friend, "if one may talk of a 'best' in the matter of one's prayers, I find that the best prayers I can make are very short ones indeed. Sometimes they have only one sentence, and they are by no means always said upon my knees. They are offered up while I am walking about, or lying awake at night, or riding in the train." When Bengel, the great commentator, was too weary to pray, all he said was, "Lord, Thou knowest that it is between us to-day as it was yesterday"; and so he went to sleep. A young man, who was worn by sick ness and suffering, had only strength to pray in short and broken sentences His heart was filled with foreboding as Satan whispered that the great God could never listen to such a prayer. Suddenly he came upon these words: "God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few." "Ah!" he said, "I have found a verse written expressly for me. God will accept the few words I can utter; now I will trust and not be afraid." If no man is heard for his much speaking, no man is rejected for his little speaking — if compressed into that little be the earnestness of his heart. (Signal.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. |
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