An example of how to pray!

Isaiah 37:14-20 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed unto the LORD, saying, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth. Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God. Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries, And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.

I love this story. I know the text is long today but at least check out well the bold print! Hezekiah receives a very bad letter, bad news. He takes the letter to the Lord in prayer. He spreads it out before Him.

He calls on God and tells the God of Heaven that he knows who God is. He reminds him of the power of the enemy but that he believes more in God. He says that the enemy is insulting God and is more worried about the reputation of God than his own. He asks God to answer to let the whole world know that God is the one and only true God.

Now here we come with our problems. They are many. Mostly of our own making but we can still pray. God does not want us to be worried. He wants us to trust Him.

Philippians 4:4-6 gives us a New Testament version of this story. We are to make our petitions known to God. First we rejoice only in Him. Our joy is not found in our things or our comforts but in His person.

Secondly we tell Him what we have come to ask.

We ask believing that He will hear and answer our prayers.

We thank Him before we quit praying.

We focus on His truths from the Scriptures and not our problems.

We live with peace because we focus our thoughts on what is right.

Read the story. Look over your life. What do you need to do to pray right now. You are dealing with a lot of stuff. Go to Him. Lay it out before Him. Trust Him. Wait on Him to prove exactly who He is and how powerful He is!