The Faith and Confidence of Hezekiah
Father, as we come into your presence this morning, help us to still ourselves. To surrender our will to yours. And to silence our soul in the certain knowledge of hearing your voice.
Selah
We honor and thank You for Your creation, and for providing us a role in it. You are our King, the great I Am, the God of Abraham, the God of Noah, and the God of Moses. All honor, glory and praise are yours forever.
Lord, hear our voices as we lift our prayer to you. We realize that we are living in a post-Christian world. That even the people called by your name have fallen short. The natural consequences of this are that we are pressed on all sides. That we are under siege by forces seen and unseen. That our country is on the brink of collapse. And we acknowledge that this is a fitting and just response to our sin.
We are reminded of other times when your people were under siege. You are the same God that your servant King Hezekiah called upon. His city was under siege by the Assyrians, his people out of food and hope. He received a written ultimatum from the Assyrian King, including the assertion that the God of Israel could no more save Jerusalem than the gods of other countries conquered by the Assyrians had saved them.
After Hezekiah received the letter and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD:
“O LORD, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God. “It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all – only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God.” (2 Kings 19:14-19, NLT)
So we spread out our problem before you. We acknowledge our individual transgressions and those of your people. We know what the answer is: We must repent of our sins and return to you. You have told us that if we will humble ourselves, pray and seek Your face, and turn from our wicked ways, You will hear from heaven and will forgive our sins and restore our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14) We ask for your mercy in turning the hearts of all people who have lost their way. Help us Lord, for we are powerless without you.
We ask it for the salvation of Your people. And we ask it so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone are God.
Amen