God is so awesome! Our topic today in Bible Fellowship (Adult Sunday School) and our Pastor's sermon is about fervent prayer...what do you think we find in our reading in Isaiah today but two fervent prayers from King Hezekiah.
Several years ago on of the Pastors at Bellevue asked me to teach a DiscipleLife (Wednesday evening class) class on transforming your prayer life, like an idiot I agreed. Why would you call yourself an idiot Mark? This was in 1996 or 1997, I had only been teaching about a year, I was a year or more away from entering seminary and the biggest issue is that this was the pre-children era for Diane and me. What does that have to do with teaching a class on transforming your prayer life? Let me put it this way...all of the scripture I have memorized concerning prayer have been invaluable in my prayer life, the many books I have read have been a great help, spending time with men and women of prayer has been a great motivator in my prayer life...BUT NOTHING HAS MOVED ME TO MY FACE, PROSTRATE BEFORE GOD IN PRAYER LIKE MY KIDS! NOTHING HAS TRANSFORMED MY PRAYER LIFE LIKE MY CHILDREN! My friends keep telling me..."you haven't see anything yet, just wait till High school and college:)
I believe that any deep water, that in any life storm God can, will and does work to transform HIS adopted children into the likeness of HIS Son. Remember Romans 8:29 "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren." This can be a financial storm...many across our country are experiencing financial storms right now. This can be a storm in our health or the health of a loved one...spouse, child, parent, etc. This can be a storm in our relationships with our spouse, children, parents, etc.
In Isaiah 36-38 Hezekiah and Jerusalem are facing certain and horrific disaster at the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria. The circumstances facing them spell out absolute and complete defeat! What does Hezekiah do? He sends word to Isaiah looking to God in desperation for help.
Isaiah 37:5-7 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. 7 Listen! I am going to put a spirit in him so that when he hears a certain report, he will return to his own country, and there I will have him cut down with the sword.’ ”
Hezekiah receives a letter from the messengers...what does he do then? He prays!
Is 37:14-22 Hezekiah’s Prayer
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 “O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. 18 “It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.” 21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
What do we take away from this? God loves to move on behalf of HIS children to demonstrate HIS glory, power and great love. Hezekiah took the letter...you and I can take God's Word and spread it out before HIM and cry out to HIM over the promises of HIS Word. We cry out not for the pleasures of this World, for they are fleeting and will be consumed like wood, hay and stubble. No we cry out for HIS glory, we boast only in the cross and we cry out for God to demonstrate HIS great power in our presence that the world may know and come to the only one who can save and come to the one true God in and through HIS Son Jesus Christ.
Is 37:36-38 Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! 37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. 38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.
God answered Hezekiah's prayer, quickly, decisively and in a dramatic fashion!
I wonder what is going on in your life and in my life that God is seeking to use to transform us into the image of HIS SON?
love,
m