Getting God's Message Getting God's Message Program Transcripts
Pastor Lud Golz
Pastor Lud Golz

About the Program | Meet Pastor Golz | Contact Information | Fellowship Bible Church | Christian Resources | Donations

  Home | Transcript Archive | July | July 13, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

In our last visit we considered the first prayer mentioned in the four chapters, Isaiah 36-39. If you read the opening verses of chapter 37 carefully you will notice that the request of Hezekiah to have Isaiah pray for them was never fulfilled. It wasn’t that Isaiah failed to pray.  It was because God gave Isaiah an answer before he was able to pray! 

One thing we learn from this is that prayer is not a matter of informing God about something of which He is unaware. Prayer is a means of sharing with God what is on our hearts. He delights in our sharing our burdens and thoughts with Him even though He already knows all that is involved. In fact, He knows far more than we do about what we are sharing with Him in prayer.
 
It’s not clear in the record why Hezekiah didn’t just go to God directly in prayer. He did humble himself and go to the temple, but then asked Isaiah to pray for his request rather than pray about it himself.
 
Another thing we can learn from this experience is that we don’t need to persuade God to respond to our needs. God is desirous and more than ready to answer prayer, unless we are sinning or holding something back from Him.
 
It’s also interesting to note that Isaiah was not just interested in getting protection and blessing from God for his people. He was concerned for God’s honor. The Assyrians had ridiculed the living God. Hezekiah wanted God to vindicate Himself and His honor by rebuking the Assyrians.
 
I’m wondering if this experience is similar to what Jesus promised that if two agree in prayer about something, God will do it.
 

Getting God's Message with Lud Golz, P.O. Box 167, Novelty, Ohio 44072

design by Klein Studios, Inc.