Thought from today’s Bible reading from 2 Kings 20-21.
“In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.”‘ Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly” (2 Kings 20:1-3).
If you continue reading in this chapter, you will see God answering Hezekiah’s prayer and granting him an additional fifteen years of life (v. 5-6). But before we get to God’s response, there are a few lessons from this passage that we need to learn.
- Life is short. Hezekiah was facing the fate that exists for all men (Hebrews 9:27). We must live with the recognition that our lives here are only temporary (James 4:14).
- It is good to pray when facing difficult circumstances. Rather than being anxious, we are to pray to God and make our requests known to Him (Philippians 4:6). This does not mean that He will respond miraculously as he did to Hezekiah. But it does mean that we can have “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension” (Philippians 4:7).
- We must wholeheartedly serve the Lord. When Hezekiah prayed, he cited the things that he had done in his lifetime – walking before God in truth and wholeheartedly doing what was good. We should examine ourselves: Could we make this same statement to God?
We must face life with the understanding that we are only here a short time and that we must trust in the Lord and obey Him.
Tomorrow’s reading: 2 Chronicles 32-33
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
