Nehemiah teaches us about several things, but two of them are the importance of prayer and the necessity of assuming active personal responsibility. In v. 4:9, the text says, "But we prayed to our God and posted a guard..." By praying to God, the people showed their total dependence of God for their protection. By posting a guard, they assumed active personal responsibility for protecting themselves. Protecting themselves (defensively) against those who would stop the work of God is completely moral and consistent with God's will.
We are to be totally dependent on God AND to act decisively to bring about God's will in a moral way consistent with His law. We are never to do anything immoral to achieve God's will.
We are to pray to God for a job AND to work hard to find one! We are to pray to God to grow our churches in numbers AND to be faithful disciples to be healthy spiritually.
Praying without acting in a responsible manner is laziness. Working without prayer is self-dependence. Neither is correct.
Nehemiah was a strong decisive leader who at the same time was totally dependent on God evidenced by his active prayer life. READ THIS CAREFULLY: Nehemiah's total dependence of God made him a confident leader, because it was God Who made Nehemiah successful. Nehemiah was successful because he was operating in the will of God - that's a great place to be.
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