Nehemiah 1:6 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 thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.

‍
Nehemiah was a successful man. He was an overachiever in his work life as well as in the ministry God had given him to oversee. He had great power and influence to accomplish the unthinkable. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days without any heavy machinery! What was the secret to his success?
‍

It is very apparent Nehemiah had God all over him. But I think we can see why God was able to use him and it’s clearly seen in how he started. When Nehemiah prayed for help, he started with, “I and my father’s house have sinned.” There was much for Nehemiah to pray about and many things he could have started with, but he started with himself. Here’s who he DIDN’T start with:

• The Government
• The Politicians
• The Religious
• High Taxes
• The Liberals
• The News
• The Sinners
• Conspiracies

None of these things made it into his prayer when he needed God’s help. The irony in this is that Nehemiah could have blamed all of these things as to why he was in the position he was in. He had to deal with overbearing political leaders; many of the religious caused the whole situation they found themselves in to begin with; taxes were high; the liberal Jews didn’t want to go home and preferred Persia; the news was all negative; lost sinners were 99.999% of what he dealt with; and there were enough conspiracies to keep him busy for a lifetime!
‍

But Nehemiah didn’t start there. Starting with those things would only cause him to lose his power since he had no control over changing others. He started with HIS sin. This is what allowed God to use him in an incredible way. If Nehemiah started his prayer with the finger pointed at himself, we would be wise to look in the mirror before we go around blaming everyone else about the condition of our country around us.
‍

What if each Christian prayed, “Lord, I need your help to mend our land, and I have sinned. Help me to serve you as I should!”
‍

Have you ever even considered that you might be the problem and that all the other issues around you are symptoms? Nehemiah understood that all of his current situations were simply a byproduct of actions that he, his family, and others from his country had created.
‍

Christians in America don’t really have any room to use the victim mentality as an excuse. We are victorious in Christ, but we can be made powerless when we play the blame game. How do we fix this? Simply start with yourself and ask if there’s something more you could be doing to make a difference for the Lord. God tells us to come to Him and He promises to answer us!