Praying Like a King
After I spend my morning time with God and I get ready, I hop into my car and start listening to a free one year Bible plan on my phone on my way into work. The plan goes through the Bible chronologically (in order of the times that the events happened) rather than the traditional way (straight from cover to cover). I've highly enjoyed this plan and if you're interested in checking it out, click here.
Well, I got to 2nd Kings and was listening to the plight of Hezekiah, who was a king being hounded by powerful enemies. One of those foes sent an extremely threatening letter to Hezekiah that shook him to the core. Let's take a look at how Hezekiah responded to this death letter and then break it down:
“Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: 'O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.'" (2 Kings 19:14-19 ESV)
So how did Hezekiah respond to this scary situation? First, he went directly to God with it. He didn't go first to his best friend or mentor for counsel, although those are good things to do. His priority was to seek God's advice and help.
Secondly, he didn't try to sugarcoat the situation. He laid out all the facts, stating that these kings have destroyed other nations like his own and destroyed everything that they cared about. He was open and honest, not trying to deceive God with a false declaration of how great everything was.
Lastly, he set all the facts and feelings at God's feet, saying that even though everything looked dark, God was more than capable of delivering him and his people. Hezekiah saw that everyone else was destroyed because they believed in false Gods and he knew that he had to trust in the one true God to save him. God ended up responding to Hezekiah in a big way and saved him and his people because of this prayer.
I'd like to challenge you to do today what Hezekiah did:
- Make prayer your priority
- Be open with God about what you're going through and how you feel
- Lean on God and remind yourself that he has promised to save you, whether now or in eternity
Spend some time today writing down and praying over some difficult or uncertain circumstances in your life in the same way as Hezekiah. God will surely answer!