Boldness to the king

The Old Testament contains tons of examples of boldness in the face of authority that makes us look week, today I want to look at the example of Nehemiah who is in a position of relationship with the King and uses that to make a request.

The king genuinely cares about Nehemiah so is perceptive:
In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2 so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

4 The king said to me, “What is it you want?” (Nehemiah 2:1-4 NIV)
The King in this case is not some harsh ruler, but one that has inherited the Israelites as captives, Nehemiah serves the King as his cupbearer and so they have gotten to know each other and so the king knows when things don't look right with Nehemiah, so he asks him what is wrong. For Nehemiah it is that the city is in ruins, it is the city of God and as such it is his God being disgraced, but it was done by the king's ancestors, he is bold in telling the king about this, yet the king cares and asks him what he wants, the king is a man of means and he can make this happen.

And so Nehemiah continues to be bold:
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it.”

6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?” It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time.

7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. (Nehemiah 2:4b-9 NIV)
Notice the first thing that Nehemiah does is to pray, he asks God for boldness that he may tell the king what he wants, and so God gives him that boldness, and Nehemiah goes for it. Not only that but the King agrees, and with this new sense of boldness Nehemiah makes more requests to enable him to do his job fully, and these are some big requests, but again the king agrees and allows Nehemiah to go, not only so but he protects him on his mission, making sure he will return safely.

Why aren't we as bold as Nehemiah? Perhaps we don't pray enough, God tells us that if we pray for it we will be given it, so maybe that's it, Nehemiah prays and straight away makes his request. Perhaps we fear failure too much? Nehemiah didn't he would have been perfectly fine if the King said no but God wasn't going to let that be an option, the possibility of not getting the right answer didn't bother Nehemiah, why? Because he left that up to God, it was his job to pose the question it was up to God and the king as to whether things would happen for him. Let us be more bold in 2012, not worrying about failure but leaving things up to God as we live boldly for him.