“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, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer”— Nehemiah 1:11.
HERE indeed is a most interesting and precious suggestion. Although Nehemiah’s prayer was that God might move the heart of the great king Artaxerxes, when he prays to the Lord about him, he simply prays that the Lord would grant him mercy in the sight of this man. The faithful cupbearer of the king realized that in the sight of God his master was but a man like any other, and he counted on God to so exercise the king that he would carry out what seemed to be very evidently the Lord’s will in regard to the welfare of the returned remnant. Faith does not quail at difficulties nor is it troubled because of the seeming greatness of the agencies that Providence may use. Faith realizes that God is above all circumstances and above all personalities.
“Oh, for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!
That will not murmur or complain
Beneath the chast’ning rod,
But, in the hour of grief or pain,
Will lean upon its God:
A faith that shines more bright and clear
When tempests rage without;
That when in danger knows no fear,
In darkness feels no doubt.
Lord, give us such a faith as this,
And then, whate’er may come.
Well taste, e’en here, the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.”
—William H. Bathurst.