Nehemiah 1:11 O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day.
Nehemiah was a prosperous slave, by which I mean, he had no food, but he never went hungry; he owned no home, but he lived in a palace; he owned no clothing or wardrobe, but he dressed well. All this is because he lived by the provision and at the pleasure of the king of the entire world at that point, the king of the empire. He was, in essence, a high-class slave. He had no problems in that sense because his needs were provided for.
But that changed when he took ownership of a problem. The problem was the destruction of Jerusalem, the leveling of the walls and so on. When his brothers came back from Jerusalem and gave the report, the Bible says he “sat down and wept, and mourned.” He fasted, and then he prayed. In other words, he gave ownership of this problem to God.
Can I tell you something? That is a wise thing to do. Now, there is no doubt that it was noble for Nehemiah to feel an ownership of Jerusalem and a kinship with its people. Problems never become better when we ignore them or fail to take responsibility when we should. For example, it would be easy to say, “Hey, that is pastor’s problem. I don’t need to worry about that.” Nothing would change if we don’t do our part to make a difference.
The other side of the equation is that the more you own, the more you have to worry about. The more you have, the more you have to worry about. What Nehemiah does in this passage is that he gives his problem away. He reminds God three or four times in the following verses that he is God’s servant. Verse 11 says, “O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant.”
Nehemiah says in verse 10, “Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.” What was he doing? He was giving ownership to God. God doesn’t want you to share your problems with Him any more than He wants you to share your life with Him. He wants you to surrender both. The more God owns, the less you worry.
Now if that is true, how much does God own? How much do you worry? What do you own that God does not? Slaves don’t own anything of themselves, and neither should the servants of God. What a liberating thing to be able to say, “God, this is not my place. These are not my possessions. I am not my own person. God, these are not my problems. All of this belongs to You.”
Today, let me encourage you to take stock of what it is that is in your hand and then give it away. Give your life to God, give your problems to God, and prosper as His servant.