This prayer is a good model to follow. It begins with praise, declaring who God is; not for God's benefit, He knows who He is! But by praying in that way, we remind ourselves who He is. Consequently, we can take our rightful place as believers in His Almighty Power.
The return of the exiles to their homeland had created wonderful images in the minds of those who were not a part of it. They thought that everyone had gone back to their family home and taken up their work as before. That would be the work of their fathers.
At that time there would be a lot of pressure on people to give, and much willingness on their parts, wanting to thank and bless God for bringing them back to their homeland. But there was also much poverty, few leaders and going back home was not quite what they had hoped.
Little is known of Nehemiah except what we learn from this book bearing his name in the Old Testament. The book is believed to have been dictated by Nehemiah but actually written by Ezra whose book precedes that of Nehemiah. Ezra named Nehemiah as one of the exiles (Ezra 2:2).
After the destruction of the whole world as John saw it in his visions, we have the end of the story. And this story ends well. It takes two full chapters to describe, and we can imagine that John found doing that quite difficult. Read those chapters and be encouraged.
Many of us feel that we are in the last days. It seems that the world is becoming crazier by the day. Biblical principles are being totally disregarded by governments in most parts of the world. World authorities are not just disregarding God, but openly working in the opposite direction.
Many of those doing evil in our world today have no idea about God. They are totally in the wrong camp, either worshipping a false god, all of whom are forms of satan, or thinking they are the head of their own lives. They are blinded.
Mountains can be places for private meditation and closeness to Father God as we read here. The earlier verses of this chapter tell us the account of the feeding of the five thousand. Let us continue to watch and pray as Jesus told His followers to do.
God used women in this battle more than any woman that was mentioned earlier in the Bible. Deborah directed battle plans against Sisera who was killed by a woman as he slept. Jael gave him a place to rest, then drove a tent peg into his forehead while he slept!
There are famous name families, politicians, people in the entertainment world, others in the public eye, who think of themselves as richer, having more authority and being appreciated more than others. There are also many in each of those categories who are humble at heart, generous and caring; praise God for those people.