Nehemiah seems to have attained that spiritual maturity of finding God in all things. In his negotiations with the King, he found that "the favouring hand of my God was upon me." The king's human favour was simply a vehicle for God's kindly grace. Nehemiah was able to win the king's favour and so discover God's presence because he prayed before he undertook to present his case to the king: "I prayed to the God of heaven and then answered the king". It is this spirit of prayer and of reliance on God that makes Nehemiah's story part of the word of God.

Each book of the Bible in its own way challenges us to reflect on our relationship with God. We see the contradiction in much modern thinking: people keep God out of their lives, but if anything goes wrong they blame God for it. Nehemiah had a deep desire in his heart. Like a good child of God, a wise and saintly man, he did not rely on himself to find a way towards the realization of his dream: he turned to God in prayer. As is frequently the case, God answered his prayer in the ordinary situations of his life.