Daily Devotional Friday Faith | June 19, 2025

Happy Friday! It’s time for your daily devotional. There’s not much known about Nehemiah, except that his father was Hebrew.  Nehemiah was probably born in captivity. Israel’s Northern Kingdom had been taken captive by Assyria; the Medo-Persian Empire defeated the Assyrians, and Persia emerged stronger. Artaxerxes I became King of Persia, and Nehemiah was his cupbearer. In today’s daily devotional, what is known about Nehemiah is that he was a man of prayer. 

Prayer of Thy Servant

Eventually, the Southern Kingdom fell to Babylon; When Nehemiah’s brother, along with some Judeans, visited Nehemiah, he asked about the welfare of those in Judah and about Jerusalem . The report wasn’t good: the people were suffering, the walls of Jerusalem remained broken down, and the gates were still burned.  Then Nehemiah wept and fasted for several days, “and prayed before the God of heaven.” Jerusalem represented the place of God’s habitation, and he begins beseeching God who keeps covenant and mercy.

In Nehemiah 1:6, he asks,  Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel.” In your daily devotional, Nehemiah appeals before God’s throne on behalf of his people, demonstrating how one can stand in the gap and intercede for others.

God Hears Your Prayer

Nehemiah doesn’t try to sugarcoat his people’s transgressions. He confesses their sins, recognizing their disobedience led them to captivity. Yet Nehemiah puts God in remembrance of His word, saying that if they repented, He would deliver them: “But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen.” 

Nehemiah’s prayer request is specific. He doesn’t beat around the bush with lofty phrases, but prays for exactly what he desires to see happen: God’s people restored to their homeland. In this daily devotional, don’t be intimidated to take on challenges, like praying for your nation; God hears your prayers as He heard Nehemiah’s. 

Desire to Prosper

Nehemiah humbly avows that they are God’s people whom He redeemed with a strong hand, as he beseeches God to be attentive to his prayer and the prayers of those who fear His name and desire to prosper. For God’s people, prospering has nothing to do with a prosperity gospel, but everything to do with God’s word. Psalm 1 says that the man who delights in the Lord will be like a well-watered, fruitful tree, and “whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

In Joshua 1:7, God says to observe His commands “that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.” And in 3 John 2, His will is that you prosper and be in health. In today’s daily devotional, God’s plans for you are good and don’t include captivity, misery, and torment, but life, joy, and peace.

You Must Pray and Take Action

In Friday’s daily devotional, Nehemiah also prays that God would grant him mercy in the king’s sight. Throughout Nehemiah, he prays before doing anything. As a man of prayer and action, he desires to go to Jerusalem and repair the city’s wall. He doesn’t pray, “Please, send someone else”; he’s willing to be God’s vessel in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure. There’s a saying, “If not you, who? If not now, when?  In today’s daily devotional, like Nehemiah, be willing. Then pray, and take action.