Nehemiah 1:11 "O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”
We all need help. Most great leaders don’t know how to do everything and aren’t great at everything. But great leaders tend to have people on their team that cover their weaknesses. They recognize the value of other people’s strengths and aren’t intimidated to say they are weak in certain areas and need help. This important principle of teamwork is found in the Bible where it says “there are many parts, but one body.” (1 Corinthians 12). The apostle Paul uses the illustration of a body and how we all have a different role to play by God’s grace to accomplish great things to bring God glory. So rather than trying to be great at everything and get everything done by yourself, God tells us to walk in humility and work as a team to accomplish great things together. But He also says pride can come in the way.
We must ask for help. This may surprise you but I can’t read your mind…I don’t know what goes on in your heart..I am unaware of your all of your needs. Ok, that may not surprise you but you may find it surprising when people act as if these things are true. Sometimes great people that want to help you aren’t doing so simply because they don’t know you want help. You never actually asked them for help, and they may just be waiting for you to ask.
Communication is key to any relationship, and many relationships suffer because of communication. Sometimes we aren’t prideful but we never communicate our need for help. We don’t want to bother anyone, we want to try to do it all alone, or we just want to take on too much. We are to ask people on our team to help us and to use their strengths to benefit the team. A great leaders is not someone who does it all but rather a great leader knows the gifts and strengths of the people that are following him and uses their gifts and abilities to benefit the whole team. This must takes place though good communication where the leader has to communicate clearly the needs, give clear expectations, and ask people to get things done.
We can ask for help from God. Have you ever thought about this? The Bible says that we can join God to accomplish great things and bring Him glory—that we become a part of God’s team. How awesome is this! This means we can ask God for help. In our weaknesses, we can have someone from our team cover us with their strength’s. It almost seems unfair because God is better at everything we are so if this principle is true we would keep on asking God to do everything. Exactly. It’s called a life of dependence, and 1 Thessalonians 5:17 actually exhorts us to live this way by saying, “Pray without ceasing.” We can actually communicate with God through prayer and ask Him for help.
We see Nehemiah praying and saying, “Give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Nehemiah went to God in prayer for help and relied on God to come through. He recognized that he needed help and communicated to someone who could help him. We must not let our pride get in the way of asking God for help in our time of need ,and we must communicate with Him through prayer. The Bible tells us that in our weakness He is made strong and He gives grace to the humble. Just as you would ask people on your team for help to accomplish great things, ask God for help today and allow His strengths to cover you.