The Power of Hezekiah’s Prayer

The story of Hezekiah’s prayer and God’s intervention can teach us a lot about trusting in God.

Hezekiah was a wonderful example of following God. “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the LORD had commanded Moses” (2 Kings 18:5-6).

In 2 Kings 18 and 19 we find the story of how God intervened for King Hezekiah. The king of Assyria attacked the cities of Judah, and he sent his representatives to harass the city of Jerusalem and Hezekiah. In the process they also mocked God!

What did Hezekiah do about it? He took the message that was sent to him and laid it out before God and begged for His intervention. Hezekiah broke his prayer up into specific, finite details, and God answered him!

God heard Hezekiah’s prayer and gave him his wishes and more. God delivered them from the hand of the Assyrians exactly as He had promised through the prophet Isaiah (2 Kings 19:6-7). Isaiah told Hezekiah what God said would happen, and that’s what took place.

Asking in faith

When we are in trouble, do we go to God in prayer with assurance and then step out in faith, knowing that God has heard us and will take action? We need to believe that God is listening to us when we pray, otherwise, why pray?

But in order to know that God is listening, we must have faith. What is faith?

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

If we pray for something and then continue to worry and fret about it because our faith is weak, we really don’t have assurance that God will answer; we just have hope that He will. That hope has to turn into living faith. Studying God’s promises and understanding and doing God’s will allows us to ask according to God’s will. Then we can claim God’s promises, and we can believe and be assured that we will receive what we have prayed for.

And we can have patience and peace in waiting for God’s answer, knowing that our loving Creator knows what is best for us and will answer according to His perfect timing.

Pleasing God

Without faith we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). God loves each and every one of us, and He will hear and answer our prayers as long as we are righteous, trust in Him and believe in His promises (Proverbs 15:29).

Christ answered His disciples’ question about why they couldn’t cast out a demon:“Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

A mustard seed is very small, and Christ was saying that if we had just a tiny bit of faith, we could move mountains. Just think if we had a large amount of faith, how much we could do!

A promise

If we have that belief, faith and assurance, if we ask according to God’s will and if we are doing God’s will, we can ask in Jesus’ name. We can have the assurance Christ gives in Mark 11:24:“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Judy Swanson is thankful that God has intervened many times in her life and the lives of her family members.