We Pray Wednesday: People of Prayer - Hezekiah

People of Prayer-Hezekiah

We read in the Bible about men who had great prayer relationships and wish that we could have the type of relationship that men in the Bible had with God.  King Hezekiah is usually not one of those men that we think about in this way.  However, as we read about the life of the king, there are several things to notice about his walk with God.  There are some things that he prayed to God about that are synonymous with our daily prayers.

1.   He had a person to pray with him about his needs.

Throughout Hezekiah’s life, he had a friend and counselor named Isaiah that was his partner to pray with.  Anytime there was a difficulty in Hezekiah’s kingdom or person life, he would call on the prophet Isaiah to partner with him and bring his request to God.  Many times when we have difficulties and trials in our life that are too heavy for us to bear, we need to find a friend that we can ask to partner in prayer with us to God.

2.  He prayed to God when an army was attacking his people.

You may think that you have never prayed to God because an army was attacking you or your family.  If you are a Christian, you have an enemy that is attacking you and your family every day.  We need to pray to God on a daily basis that he will deliver us and our family from the constant attack of Satan and his army.  He comes to God daily and accuses us.  He also bombards us daily with temptations.  If a physical person was trying to attack you and your family on a daily basis, would you not pray earnestly to God?  Why then do we not pray to God because of the constant attack Satan has against us and our family?

3.  He took big problems directly to God.

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent a letter to Hezekiah that blasphemed God and told Hezekiah that he would destroy Jerusalem.  Look what the Bible says that he does: “And 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.”  (I Kings 19:20-21)  When a problem came to the king that was big and not one that he created for himself, he took it directly to God and prayed.  He did not worry, complain to others, or try to figure out a solution to the problem.  He went directly to God, told God the problem, and asked God what He was going to do with the problem.   This is exactly what we should do on a daily basis.

4.  He prayed to God for a miraculous healing.

Isaiah, Hezekiah’s friend, came and told Hezekiah that God said he was going to die.  Hezekiah turned toward the wall and asked God to heal him.  God not only miraculously healed him but also had the sun go back ten degrees on the sundial.  Do you ask God to heal others from diseases or infirmities that they have?  We think that God no longer heals, but uses doctors or medicine to heal.  This is also what He did for Hezekiah. They used medicine to help heal him from his disease.  Remember this was a disease that Hezekiah was supposed to die from, yet God healed him.

5.  He did not realize the consequences of his prayer.

The result of Hezekiah’s prayer was that God healed him of a disease from which he should have died.  The result of this prayer led to men from Babylon coming and bringing a present to Hezekiah because of his sickness.  The men came and saw all the riches of his kingdom.  Later his friend Isaiah prophesied to Hezekiah that the men from Babylon would return, take all of the riches of his kingdom, destroy the city, and take his people captive.  How many things in our life may be different had we not prayed for what we wanted?  Had Hezekiah just died instead of praying for his life, would Babylon still have destroyed Jerusalem?  We need to be sure that we pray according to God’s will, not our own.  Many times we want things that God does not want us to have, but we pray earnestly for it. God may eventually give it to us, knowing that it is not best for us.  We then turn around and blame God for the problem that we have because of the thing that we prayed so hard for in the first place.  We need to be sure that we pray according to God’s will.