Then the Lord commanded Isaiah to go back to Hezekiah and say to him, ‘I, the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, have heard your prayer and seen your tears: I will let you live fifteen years longer’”. Isa 38:4, 5 GNB Some people have to wait for years before their prayers are answered. One woman believed God wanted her to be involved in healing. Her family could not afford the fees for her to go to medical school. She started praying about it - at the age of eight. Thirty two years later, aged forty, her request was granted. She laid hands on people and prayed for them for the next thirty years. Many were healed - including doctors. Not all answers to prayer are positive, of course. Hezekiah did not have to wait that long. Soon the answer came to his anxious prayer. God would give him another fifteen years. And Isaiah, who had conveyed the news to him that he would die, now came back with the news that he would live. The king had prayed to be spared from death. God’s answer offered him far more than he had asked for. You can ask in prayer, but God decides how he will answer. Sometimes he says, “No”. Sometimes he says, “Wait a while”. Sometimes he says, “Yes”. Then he may just say, “Yes - and much more besides”. Prayer is a much-neglected discipline of the Christian life. We all know we should pray regularly – and that the great saints all spent much time in prayer - but sadly few of us become mighty pray-ers. Do not hesitate to ask for your heart’s desire as Hezekiah did. But sometimes sit with your Bible quietly reflecting on a passage or a verse. And let God speak to you. PRAYER THOUGHT Lord, make me a man, (a woman), of prayer.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 06:24:19 +0000
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