Lay it down…

A couple of week ago, I frantically looked for some sheets of paper. How hard could it be to find some paper around this house? Goodness gracious.

Making up my bed just minutes before, a thought came to me. Earlier this year, I had read in our bible reading plan the story of Hezekiah.

Really, I had not thought much of him until tucking in my white sheets neatly under my mattress that morning.

Ahh, finally, I found some paper.

I grabbed a pen and scribbled prayers on individual sheets of paper. My handwriting barely legible.

In the book of 2 Kings, King Hezekiah (King of Judah) receives a threatening and taunting letter from the King of Assyria. He threatens to completely destroy and overthrow Hezekiah’s kingdom. The Assyrian King also denounces The Lord God, whom Hezekiah faithfully serves.

King Hezekiah immediately goes to the temple of The Lord to pray.

Okay, let’s stop here for a second.

When you receive a threat, or bad and disturbing news…where do you go first?

EEK.

I will admit, I usually call my mom!

We can learn first and foremost from King H, to go to The Lord FIRST.

The next thing King H (shortening his name because it’s early) does is spread out the letter before God.

I love this picture. It is a physical action of surrender. Literally, King H puts this disturbing and threating letter in God’s hands.

King H then prays this beautiful, faithful, bold and confident prayer.

“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 and said: “O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.””

Guess what? God answered his prayer. In a HUGE way.

“And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when the people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.”

So, basically, without King H lifting a finger, God answered his prayer supernaturally.

Guess what? We serve and we pray to this same God!!!

He is able and willing to do the same for us.

Back to my bed making story…

I scribbled down 8 prayers on those sheets of paper. I spread them out on the floor.

Giving the dog a treat so he would not lick me to death on the floor, I laid face down on my hardwood floor with those prayers spread out before me.

I wanted to show God my surrender to Him in these things. I trusted Him. I believed Him. I was confident that He would answer in His own time and own way.

These prayers are still tucked in my prayer journal and I plan to lay them out again before The Lord again and again.

Friend, what is on your heart today? What is the biggest threat to your peace and well being?

Find some paper. Scribble down your prayers. Lift those prayers up to God.

Hopefully, you can find paper a little quicker than I did.

Wait, pray. And keep praying.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.. Ephesians 2:20

back to my floor,

jill