Day 13 - 21 Days of Prayer Devotional

21 Days of Prayer DAY 13 - 2 Kings 19:14-19 14 After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord's Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 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. 16 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib's words of defiance against the living God. 17 "It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 18 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. 19 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." CONSIDER THE CONTEXT Hezekiah, being the King of Israel received a letter no king would ever want to receive. The letter was from the King of Assyria - a much more powerful nation than Israel. Basically the letter was saying that your days are numbered. Israel didn't stand a chance. Was Hezekiah scared - you bet he was. But rather than giving up, he chose to pray. Then God got busy! CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS Why is prayer the option of last resort so many times in our lives? Hezekiah didn't make this mistake when faced with such terrible news. Maybe it was the shear hopelessness of the letter from Assyria that made Hezekiah literally spread out the pages of the letter before God on the altar of the temple. Notice what Hezekiah prayed. It wasn't a simple "save me!" It was the fact that the Name of God was at stake - the King of Assyria was ridiculing the Living God with his threats against Israel. What is it in your life that the enemy is trying to mock the Name of God by attacking you with? Lay it out before God and see what He does with that kind of prayer. CONSIDER THE PRAYER Lord, not only am I under attack, so is your Name in our community. Our Church is being burdened by forces of evil. That evil threatens to make your name a laughing stock. That evil wants to whisper in the ears of the lost - "that God of that useless Church is a useless God." That evil wants to mislead your sheep with the lies that stand to ridicule your name before those who might otherwise choose you. Please Lord, lay waste to that evil in our world, in our Church, in my life. Give those who have the desire to turn from the false gods of this world to the true Living God a chance to see the power of your Name through me and through my Church. Thank you that you are greater than the evil of this world. We rest in your greatness. Thank you for the protection of your name in, around and through us. Amen.