Pray

King Hezekiah received troubling news. He learned that the king of Assyria was on his way to capture Hezekiah’s kingdom. When Hezekiah heard the report, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the temple to pray. God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and delivered Judah from the powerful Assyrian army. Today’s passage is Hezekiah’s response.

What do you do when you can’t pray? When the words won’t come. When your soul is exhausted. The great missionary J. Hudson Taylor came to that point. When anxiety filled his heart, he said, “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.” We can all trust and know that the Holy Spirit is praying for us at a level we cannot comprehend.

The other night, I went through the house and turned on every light. Then I built big black boxes and put one over each light to stymie the glow. My work was done. I had turned the lights on and then covered them over so their glow could not be seen. You say, “Ridiculous!” That’s exactly what Jesus said.

It was going to be a tough meeting. Those sitting around the table had some serious issues with each other. You could feel the tension—so thick you could cut it with a knife, as the saying goes. I knew this time together could blow up in my face. If it ended with me having to make a judgment, someone would leave the church. I also knew no one in the room was squeaky clean on this one. So, I began by reading Ephesians 4:32.

When Jesus taught us how to talk to the Father in what we call the Lord’s Prayer, he instructed us to pray, “your kingdom come.” Why did Jesus tell us to include this in our prayers? 1 Corinthians 15 helps us answer that question.

When we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are putting forth a risky offering. We are asking that God’s perfect will be worked through our lives. And we are placing ourselves in submission to that perfect will. For Jesus, that meant death—even death on a cross! What will that prayer mean for you? I don’t know what it will mean, but here are some things it could mean.

I often hear people say, “My goodness, with all the natural disasters around the world; the earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods, and all the wars and threats of more to come, the craziness of our culture calling wrong right and right wrong, we have to be living in the end times.” It’s true. Peter makes the point in our passage today. 1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

Our passage today is an answer to a question ... actually, two questions. So let’s check them out.

One of the things we need to talk to our Father about is spiritual protection. We have an enemy who is out to get us.