2. Prayer Assessment Test: Are you satisfied with your prayer life? Do you pray with confidence? When someone says to you, “Please pray about this,” do you? If you were asked to name four or five specific matters you have taken to the Lord in prayer this past week, could you do so without hesitation? Is your time in the Bible balanced with time in meaningful prayer?

3. Common Misconceptions about Prayer: #1. Prayer is not our attempt to gain the Lord’s FAVOR.

4. Common Misconceptions about Prayer: #1. Prayer is not our attempt to gain the Lord’s FAVOR. #2. Prayer is not to get Him to help us ACHIEVE our goals.

5. Common Misconceptions about Prayer: #1. Prayer is not our attempt to gain the Lord’s FAVOR. #2. Prayer is not to get Him to help us ACHIEVE our goals. #3. Prayer is not the means by which we tap into a limitless reservoir of power to ensure SUCCESS.

6. Common Misconceptions about Prayer: #1. Prayer is not our attempt to gain the Lord’s FAVOR. #2. Prayer is not to get Him to help us ACHIEVE our goals. #3. Prayer is not the means by which we tap into a limitless reservoir of power to ensure SUCCESS. #4. There is not MAGIC formula to prayer.

8. Nehemiah 9:5-38 is the longest record of prayer in all of Scripture. What we have recorded in the Bible is a condensed version of what was originally a 3 hour prayer!

9. More importantly than the time spent in prayer is your attitude. The people in Jerusalem had genuine humility and purity of heart: Nehemiah 9:1: Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with ashes upon them.

10. Fasting: To set aside the interruptions of life so they might give complete, undivided attention to the Lord

11. Sackcloth: Was a heavy, coarse material, made from black goat’s hair and often used to make bags; outward symbol of inner anguish.

12. Ashes: Ancient societies associated ashes with detestable things, even death; expressed the inner anguish of someone at the lowest depths of sorrow.

13. Other examples of ashes on someone’s head: Job (Job 2:8) Jonah (Jonah 3:6) Joshua (Joshua 7:6)

14. In Nehemiah’s book, when the Jews gathered at the wall for prayer, their sackcloth and ashes reflected the condition of their hearts. They came before the Lord with genuine humility and heartbroken over their sin.

15. #1. LOOKING UP (Nehemiah 9:5-6)

16. Neh. 9:5-6: And the Levites…said: “Stand up and praise the L ORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the L ORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

17. Praise: Is the practice of putting all thoughts of self aside to concentrate on the adoration of God – His Character and Attributes

18. #2. LOOKING BACK (Nehemiah 9:7-31)

19. #3. LOOKING IN (Nehemiah 9:32-37)

20. “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes—the hardship that has come on us, on our kings and leaders, on our priests and prophets, on our ancestors and all your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today. 33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.

21. #4. LOOKING AHEAD (Nehemiah 9:38)

22. “In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it.”

23. “We must not conceive of prayer as overcoming God’s reluctance, but as laying hold of His highest willingness.” - Richard Chenevix Trench