I think it's interesting looking back that I kept highlighting verses about God showing favor on those who choose to walk with Him.
I noticed it after a while. The same theme kept jumping out to me through Chronicles. Through Ezra. And now here in Nehemiah.
The favor of God.
Resting on people who were obedient. Pursuing Him. Trusting Him. Asking Him before they asked anyone else.
Nehemiah is asking the king for a lot. Permission to leave his job. Letters of safe passage. Timber from the royal forest. A whole rebuilding operation. Resources. Protection. Time.
The kind of ask that should have been impossible for someone like a cupbearer or servant to ask, and yet the king grants it.
But watch the line Nehemiah adds at the end as he is telling the story.
And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me.
He does not credit his preparation. He does not credit his pitch. He does not credit the relationship he had built as the king's cupbearer. He does not credit his good timing or his careful wording.
He credits the gracious hand of God.
He knew where the favor came from.
That is what gets me about Nehemiah. He was sharp. He was organized. He was strategic. He had clearly thought through what he was going to ask for, down to the specific official whose letter he would need.
But he never confused the gift with the source.
He could have walked out of that throne room patting himself on the back. Wow, I handled that well. I really nailed the pitch. I am good at this. But instead he walked out with his eyes on the One who had been moving in the background the whole time.
I want that kind of awareness.
Because I have noticed something about myself. When things go well, I often forget to credit God. When the door opens, when the deal closes, when the conversation goes better than I expected, when the favor shows up out of nowhere, I tend to either take a little credit myself or just chalk it up to luck.
But that is the favor of God too.
The open doors. The right people in the right rooms at the right time. The conversations that go smoother than they should have. The provision that lines up perfectly. The opportunities I did not earn but somehow got. None of that is random.
The gracious hand of God moves in ways we often do not notice.
Nehemiah noticed. And he said it out loud.
Even just to himself. Even just in his memoir. He wrote it down. The king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me.
That kind of awareness is its own form of worship.
It is one thing to thank God for the things we asked Him for. It is a deeper thing to thank Him for the favor we did not even realize He was orchestrating. The behind-the-scenes work. The conversations softened before we walked into them. The hearts prepared before we ever opened our mouth.
He is doing so much more than we see.
The least we can do is name it when we notice it.