Posts Tagged ‘supplication’
ONE NEW YEAR’S NIGHT LONG AGO….
Saturday, December 29th, 2012
It has long been known that history repeats itself. The oft quoted quip of Santayana has been stated in many ways since, but it still stands that “Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.” The things of the past are our tutors. We lean and trust on those with silver crowns because its by their wisdom and experience that we learn the lessons of life and good decision making. We also learn from histories how nations stand and how they fall by searching out their strengths and weaknesses—what their leaders stood for and what they stood against. Those who fail to do so throw caution to the wind and their leadership is marked out by the fickleness of emotionalism, narcissism, the lusts of the flesh, and a thirst for success and power rather than the discipline of the soul; moreover, whether in their day or in the days that follow destruction eventually ensues.CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE
PRAY THE NAMES OF GOD – DAY 22
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
GOD IS FAITHFUL
There was once a king, who grew up in the presence of a family who bowed down to both pagan gods and Jehovah God Himself. This king remained faithful. In the midst of the enemies of God, he drew a line and never crossed it.
When the enemy surrounded him, he and his spiritual advisor cried out to God and reassured their people that they should “be strong and courageous, because the Lord our God will go before us and fight their battles”! This occurred during Year 14 of his reign.
This leader, King Hezekiah, prayed a childlike prayer which both you and I should remember. He prayed the following: 2 Kings 19:14-19 “ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “O LORD, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.
“It is true, O LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men’s hands. Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”
This leader, King Hezekiah, remained faithful to the Lord. God sent His Angel, who killed 185,000 of the enemy in their tents over that same night. When the enemy’s leader, Sennacharib, woke up that morning and saw all his men dead, he retreated to Assyria.
Now here is where it got interesting. Right at that time, Faithful King Hezekiah became deathly ill with what many of us believe to be an extreme form of skin cancer (or the Bible calls is a boil on the skin). God sent His prophet Isaiah to tell King Hezekiah to put his house in order, because he was going to die!
Hezekiah again prayed another child-like prayer in tears and supplication! He prayed this simple prayer: “Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, and said, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.(Isaiah 38:2-3 ESV)
God proved Himself FAITHFUL to those who are faithful to Him! In the very next two verses of Isaiah 38, Jehovah Rapha – God Who Heals, sent a message to King Hezekiah via Isaiah “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life“. (Isaiah 38:5 ESV)