Hezekiah’s prayer, and ours

Because of Hezekiah’s prayer (2 Kings 19:14-19), the Lord delivers Jerusalem, kills 185,000 Assyrians, and sends Sennacherib packing back to Nineveh. That’s what one calls an effective prayer. What made it so effective?

Among other things, it is firmly based on the promise and word of God. He makes explicit reference to the promise of 1 Kings 8-9 when he asks the Lord to “hear” and “see” what the Rabshakeh has said in the name of Sennacherib. Hezekiah’s presence in the temple area to offer this prayer is itself based on a promise. What authorizes him to go into the Lord’s presence and say anything at all? It’s because God has promised, and because God has installed him as king. He can make this prayer because he is an authorized representative of Judah in the temple.

We often think it’s pious to be hesitant and tentative in prayer. We often think it’s pious to qualify every request with a show of humility. Of course, we must humble ourselves before the Lord. Of course, He will do His will.

Often what looks like humility is in fact unbelief: We are timid and tentative in prayer because we don’t really believe the promises of God. We are hesitant because we don’t believe that we are really kings and priests to God. Is it true that God has made us kings and priests to God? Is it true that He’s promise to see, hear, and respond when we prayer toward the living temple, Jesus? Is it true that He promises to give all we ask in the name of Jesus? Don’t let the necessary qualifications nullify the promise.

You say, but I’m no Hezekiah. Right: You have far more authority to speak before the Lord than Hezekiah did: He was confined to the outer court of the temple, but we boldly enter into the presence of God Himself. He was a king of Israel, but we are, in and with Christ, seated in heavenly places . He prayed toward a temple of stone, but we pray to a living temple, a temple destroyed and rebuilt in three days. Is all that true or not? Do we pray like it’s true, or not?

When we come before the Lord, we are coming as kings and priests, as righteous in the Righteous One Jesus. We don’t come before the Lord as worms, cowering before a heavy-handed, quick-tempered tyrant. To pray like worms is an insult to the grace and kindness of our infinitely merciful God; to pray like a worm is an implicit denial of God’s word, which declares that we are raised with Christ.

You say, But I am a worm in myself. Forget about “in yourself.” You are not in yourself. You are in Christ the Son. We pray as sons, confident that our Father knows what we need and will give us what we ask. Believe it, and pray accordingly.