Adventures in Prayer - #2
In 2 Kings 19:20 - King Hezekiah took a letter written by Sennacherib which challenged God’s ability to keep Jerusalem safe, spread it out before the Lord and prayed. The glorious answer which fills the rest of the chapter came in vs 20 – “Because you have prayed to Me.”
Today, as we face our uncertain future what is our response to all that is being thrown at us? Do we choose to let things happen or do we use the most powerful weapon we have as Christians and pray?
What if King Hezekiah had not prayed?
Only "because you prayed" will God have a chance to give us an answer.
Our problem is that we don’t want to bother God with our little details here on earth until it really gets into a crisis mode. “That’s okay, bother God any way!” God can’t answer a prayer that is never spoken to Him. He would like to, but He has bound himself from acting in my behalf until I pray to Him regarding my situation.
So, when I pray, I give God a right to act on my behalf.
When I enrolled in seminary in Lancaster, PA, we left the farm we owned in West Virginia. The farm had been set up for a yearly mortgage to be paid on it. That first year I was in seminary, the yearly mortgage bill came due in May. I was really upset because I didn’t have the funds to pay the bill. But I was, also upset with God. Why do I have to pay a bill on a farm in West Virginia when I am in seminary in PA?
I took that bill and started driving around in Lancaster trying to get my mind around what was happening. I finally parked in the Sears parking lot where I worked part-time selling men’s suits. As the rain pounded the windshield, God and I had one of our chats. (I still have those from time to time.) I finally got to the place that I declared to God that I was perplexed. I said to Him, “If I have missed it by coming to Lancaster, then I would go back to the farm. If I had not missed it and I was supposed to be in Lancaster, then He had to sell the farm because I didn’t need it any longer.” I told Him, “I needed to know, and I was ready to do what He told me to do.”
Two weeks later the farm sold without us ever putting it on the market. God made it loud and clear we were to be in Lancaster.
When you pray – coincidences happen! When you don’t pray, they don’t happen.
Notice when the disciples prayed there was an earthquake, “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).
Prayer is a powerful force! So, pray! Then, be amazed at God’s answer!
