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I’ve been focusing on Nehemiah 8 for the last several weeks in these posts/prayers:

Earlier this week in Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You, for not paying attention to Your Word I reminded us that the Bible is God’s very own words breathed out to us through His Holy Spirit, Who also inspired and carried along the writers of the Bible, and how the Holy Spirit Himself must be grieved and quenched when we do not pay attention to the Word of God as we should. Along those same lines, I’d like to return to Nehemiah 8 so we might put ourselves in the light of the Word to have the Holy Spirit might examine us and our attitudes toward God and His precious Word. I know I’ve covered some of these things in my previous posts, but believe we should return there again today.

Father, Son and Spirit, as we open Your Word and consider Your Word to us now, we know we have no vision and insight apart from Your opening our eyes and showing us the truth about ourselves. We ask You would send Your Holy Spirit to discern the thoughts and intents of our hearts toward You and Your Word, particularly in light of the example of the Israelites here in Nehemiah 8. Open our eyes and ears and hearts to hear and see and receive from You now. We pray also that You would help us especially be taking time to prepare ourselves to hear Your Word this week in worship. And for those out there who will be teaching or preaching, we pray You would guard and protect them as they seek Your face and prepare to give out Your Word to Your flock. May Your Spirit fill them and empower them so Your Word go out with boldness and assurance. Amen.

Nehemiah 8:1  And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and asked that Your Word be read in the time of Nehemiah.
We confess how we so often gather together as Your Church and we have no interest in having Your Word read.
We confess that we often do not even ask to have Your Word read, but settle for cheap substitutes.
We confess we do not love You and Your Word as we ought.

We confess we do not have the interest in Your Word as we ought.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit,
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Increase our love for You and Your Word so we will not settle for lesser things. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

2  So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and made Your Word primary and central.
We confess how often we have grieved You, Holy Spirit, because we have not made Your Word primary and central.
We confess that we read from so many other books, we listen to so many other words.
We confess that we do not give You and Your Word the preeminent place in our gatherings.

We confess we have not made Your Word primary and central as we ought.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Give us a desire to make Your Word primary and central as we ought. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

3  And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand.

Lord God, we see how Your people gathered together and listened to Your Word for hours on end.
We confess how when we gather together we don’t listen to Your Word for a few minutes, if that.
We confess that we do not give You and Your Word the preeminent place in our churches and in our lives.

We confess we do not listen to Your Word as we often as we ought.
 We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Increase our hunger to hear Your Word and open our ears to hear Your Word. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

4  And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. 5  And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people…

Lord God, we see how Your Word was lifted up to its rightful place because Your Word stands alone for You stand alone.
We confess how when we gather together we do not lift up You or Your Word to the rightful place.
We confess how our eyes are on all other things but You and Your Word as we gather together.
We confess how in many churches today Your Word is not even opened up in the sight of all the people.

We confess we have not given You and Your Word the rightful place – above all people, above all other books.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Humble us so we might reverence You and Your Word and give You and Your Word the rightful place and open up Your Word in our churches. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

5 …as he opened it all the people stood. 6  And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.

   Lord God, we see how Your people gave the glory and honor due to You and to Your Word.
We confess how we often do not give You and Your Word the glory and honor we ought.
We confess how we often do not see You as high and lifted up and holy and Your Word as holy.
We confess how we often come to You and Your Word too casually and have little or no sense of reverence.

We confess we have not given the glory and honor due to You and to Your Word.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Humble us so we might give You and Your Word due glory, honor, and reverence. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

7  Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law while the people remained in their places.8  They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Lord God, we see how Your appointed leaders helped Your people understand Your Word.
We confess how so many of our leaders and we ourselves sometimes do not help Your people to understand Your Word but bring confusion.

We confess we often bring confusion rather than understanding to Your people.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Give us eyes to see and a heart for the sheep who are in need of clear teaching and understanding of Your Word.
 We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

7  …while the people remained in their places.

Lord God, we see how Your people remained in their places as Your Word was read and taught.
We confess how often our attention wanders and wanes as we hear Your Word read and taught.

We confess though we may remain in our places, our hearts and minds wander and wane and we do not remain attentive to Your Word.
We confess we have grieved You, Holy Spirit.
Forgive us, Holy Spirit, for grieving You by despising the gift of Your Word.
Holy Father, cleanse us from all unrighteousness by the blood of Jesus Christ, Your Son.

O, to whom shall we go? You alone have the Words of life. Increase our appetite and hunger for You and Your Word, so our hearts and minds might remain fixed on You and Your Word. We thank You, Holy Spirit, for the gift of Scripture to us. May we not despise it.

Please add your own PRAYERS below as the Holy Spirit leads you.