Last time we read about how King Jehoshaphat faced an unexpected event in his life and how we can apply that to our lives. This time we will continue from where we left off.
Jehoshaphat and the people had gathered together and now we will take a look at Jehoshaphat's prayer. We will look at the first few verses of his prayer and see how we can apply that to our lives.
5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
2nd Chronicles 20:5-9
I enjoy reading the different prayers that are recorded in the Bible. We get to see how others called out to God in their situations. It also helps us to develop a prayer vocabulary. Though we don't just want to recite words over and over from memory with no thought behind what we are saying, we can use the words of the prayers that are in the Bible to teach us how to pray.
In verse 6 we are seeing how great God is. This is always a good place to start when we are facing a tough time. When we are in the midst of a fearful situation it is encouraging if we reflect on how great God is. Though we don't want to deny the reality of our problem, sometimes we can make the mistake of magnifying the problem over God. But Jehoshaphat starts out: and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.
Notice, he hasn't mentioned his problem yet. He is just ackowledging who God is right now.
In verse 7 he begins to tell of some of the ways God had come through in the past: 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ?
When we are in the midst of a challenge and not sure of what to do, it is a good idea to reflect on ways that God has come through for you in the past. Often when we are in a challenge all we can think about is the past. So we need to remind ourselves of how God has been faithful to us in the past. One way to help you remember is to keep a notebook. When the challenge comes and all you can think about is your problem, you can go back to your notebook to remind yourself of what God has done for you in the past.
In verse 9 the prayer is basically saying that if anything were to happen to them, they would cry out God in their distress and God would hear them and deliver them. 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
They are an example to what we should do. Should anything come upon us, we will: Go to God, cry out to Him, and He will hear us and deliver us.
So we see from this prayer:
1. Let's magnify our God above our problem.
2. Let's remind ourselves how great our God is.
3.Let's remind ourselves of ways God has come through for us in the past.
4.Go to God with our problem.
5. He will hear us.
6. He not only will hear us, but He will deliver us.
Troy
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