PRAYING IN TIMES OF TROUBLE
Isaiah
37:14-15 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.
This chapter of Isaiah contains an
interesting story about King Hezekiah. The Assyrians were attacking Jerusalem
with a large army and beginning to overpower it. The situation looked hopeless.
King Sennacherib ridiculed Hezekiah mercilessly. Sennacherib made fun of
Hezekiah’s misfortune by writing him a letter filled with insults about God in
order to make the devout king lose all hope. Instead of losing hope, Hezekiah
went into the temple, spread out the letter in front of God, bowed down with
his face touching the ground, and prayed a heartfelt prayer.
Learning to pray when there’s an emergency or when
something is frightening us requires a lot of discipline. Instead of praying,
we tend to torture ourselves with anxiety and worry. All we can think about is
trying to get rid of the problem. The devil often tricks us when temptation or
suffering first begins, whether we are dealing with spiritual or physical
matters. He immediately barges in and makes us so upset about the problem that
we become consumed by it. In this way, he tears us away from praying. He makes
us so confused that we don’t even think about praying. When we finally begin to
pray, we have already tortured ourselves half to death. The devil knows what
prayer can accomplish. That’s why he creates so many obstacles and makes it so
inconvenient for us that we never get around to prayer.
On the basis of this story in Isaiah, we should get into
the habit of falling on our knees and spreading our needs in front of God the
moment we have an emergency or become frightened. Prayer is the very best
medicine there is. It always works and never fails – if we would just use it!
Faith
Alone: A Daily Devotional by Martin Luther. July 16.