When Ezra had prayed

Ezra 10:1

Now when Ezra had prayed, and when he had confessed, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there assembled unto him out of Israel a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore.

Israel here was in a terrible predicament. They found themselves riddled with sin. They had mingled with the heathen about them, rather than staying pure before the Lord their God. And Ezra, as a mighty man of God, was greatly troubled by the sin. And so should we be! Sin should trouble us! It should be detestable and abominable! For it is to God! God detests any blot or blotch that would mar the purity or compromise the godliness of His people. We are to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. And so, as Ezra is deeply troubled about this, he goes to prayer. It is not recorded that he met with other people or consulted with others first. No! He went immediately and first to the Lord. He spread out his hands before God in the house of the Lord. He went to God’s sanctuary and met with the Lord and cried unto Him. And here it is recorded that when he had prayed and confessed, there assembled unto him a very great congregation of men, women, and children out of all Israel. This happened after he had prayed! And then these people were ready to make amends and be right with God.

When Ezra had prayed! Prayer is enormously and grievously underestimated by Christians. We think that we must contrive and conceive of ways in which to save everything and everyone. We think that we must straighten everyone and everything else out, and make all the crooked things straight and the rough ways smooth. But this is wrong! How will everything wrong be made right? When will a change come? How will a change come? And how will a lasting change come upon us as a people and as a nation? How will our churches change, our families, and our loved ones? Only one way! Prayer and confession! Ezra prayed and confessed the sin of his people. He got before the Lord and confessed all sin! Read Ezra 9. What a glorious and wonderful national prayer that is for his people! And what a tremendous prayer that we should all use individually! Dear friends, as it has been said, “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.” We must begin with God! We must pray before we do anything else! Pray first! “I exhort therefore,” Paul says, “that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions…” This is first and everything else is down the list.

Oh, my dear and beloved friends, whatever is of concern to you, pray first of all. Do not act yet, unless you have already prayed! God’s blessing shall not rest upon your efforts if prayer has not been made first. God wrought a great change in Israel when the people saw their transgressions and purged themselves from the sin that was plaguing the congregation. But this only happened after Ezra led the way in prayer. He prayed and confessed, and then the change took place! We must pray, and then watch the Lord work mightily.

“Father, we confess that sometimes we have gotten things so in our minds and have become so obsessive about getting done something that we have conjured up, that we do not stop and speak to You and wait for the answer. Let us never be as the children of Israel who at times did not ask counsel of God. Ezra did ask counsel! And let us be as him, who confessed and prayed, and then had the privilege of seeing You work. We want to see You work! But we know it will not happen until prayer has been made. May we seek You in prayer like we never have before, and may we then see You work, as we never have before. And we shall praise You for it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”