The Prayer Of Hezekiah

The prayer of Hezekiah

Isaiah 38:1-5

Introduction-

Good morning, last week I challenged you with a simple two letter word if. What if and if only.

What if you believe God in His word for these Scriptures? How many remember them?

If my people who are called by my name will humbly pray and seek my face…then I will forgive their sin and heal their land.

If God is for us, who can be against us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins.

If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, the old is pass, and the new has come.

Anyone of those scriptures can and will change your life if you believe them and live them.

Today, I will challenge you again. It is the two prayers of Hezekiah.

I want you to pay close attention, I do not claim to have a formula on God’s hand of who He is going to heal and who He does not.

I want to show you in scripture some truths that will cause you to put your trust in Him instead of trust only in yourself.

Amen!

How many have thought about dying?

How many wonder why bad things happen to good people?

How many have had an argument with God over something that happened or is happening in your life?

You seem to be stuck between what He says is right and how you are feeling.

You are not alone in that- God’s Word has something to say about it.

Isaiah 38:1-38:5- Read from Bible

We have all gotten bad news

We have all had unexpected things that we are forced immediately to think about and to act upon.

We have all been disappointed that God has seemed to have a deaf ear when we needed Him.

Becky’s mom, my mother in law is 93 year old. When we go and see her, there is always a time of prayer. She tells me every time… do not pray that I would be healed, pray that the Lord takes me home. I want to go home.

See, I do not understand some of God’s thoughts because she wants to go home and then I read about a stray bullet hitting a woman in Harrisburg and killing her in her prime.

I get angered at abortion, angered about abuse of innocent people, unexpected accidents, diseases that kill.

Mom wants to go to heaven, she stays here living, innocent people wanting to live taken by ways unavoidable to them.

God has a plan and He sees the big picture. It is the only way I even have a chance to understand. We see things limited and God sees all and knows what is best for the plan of God to be accomplished.

Hezekiah’s prayer in Isaiah is made up of several things

It began in Isaiah 37 as a godly King is crying out to God about their enemies ready to invade and nations coming against the living God of Israel.

Isaiah 37:14-20 Read clearly

Unless you read chapter 37 of the king crying out to God, you cannot appreciate the amazing God who listened and answered prayer for the crying servant of God and ended 38:5 by saying “I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.”

Hezekiah’s illness

Hezekiah’s healing

God’s promise

It is also recorded in 2 Kings Chapter 19. One is from the prospective of the King and one from the perspective of the Prophet coming to the King. There is a lot we can learn from these verses. Do you think God wants us to grab these truths?

We do not know the illness that Hezekiah had, but we know that it is life threatening. It was so bad that the prophet Isaiah came to the king and told him to get his house in order that he was not going to recover but will surely die.

We do not always get a warning in advance of what is going to happen to us. That is why the Lord tells us that we must be ready and we must not put off things that are important because we are not promised tomorrow.

Hezekiah at that point had a decision to make- he could be bitter and fight God or he could cry out to God. He chose to turn his face toward God and pray. That always is your best choice and should be our first choice.

We do not always get our prayers answered, but it puts us in the right attitude toward God and toward the situation that we are going through.