When God is the Only One Who Can Help

I read the passage through again and sighed. Oh, how I could relate.

Under attack? Check

Done all I could? Check

Defeat seems inevitable? Check

Sometimes, I tire of hearing my own prayers. Deliverance seems like a distant dream.

But then there is this:

Servant-child of the living God? Check

And therein lies my hope.

“On what do you rest this trust of yours?”

It was a question put to King Hezekiah of Judah while he was defying the King of Assyria. And it’s a question for us today.

It’s time for some good ole soul searching, my friend. The kind that makes us squirm and shift our gaze.  Uncomfortable yes, but in a good way so long as it makes us confront the idols we’ve placed right up there, next to God.

If I’m honest, my confidence doesn’t always rest in God alone. It’s scary and painful just to type that. Yet, the truth remains, sometimes, my trust is divided. And deep down I know, God is not pleased with divided trust.

So, as I wait for deliverance, I go back to King Hezekiah. Where did he place his confidence? What were the steps in his rescue? What is God telling me about Himself through this biblical account? And how can I respond?

Desperate and Distraught

‘This is what Hezekiah says: this day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.’ (Isaiah 37:3bNIV)

Unfortunately, sometimes we have to come to the end of our rope before we are desperate enough to turn to God ALONE. When all our carefully researched and resourced steps, taken to guard against a threat, prove to be woefully insufficient, we recognize our dire need for God. Despite King Hezekiah’s vast preparations, He could see no way out. Unless God intervened, Jerusalem would, like the surrounding fortified cities, be reduced to a pile of stones.

When you think of your situation, the one for which you have been praying for deliverance, is God the ONLY way out?  Or do you still have some cards hiding in your back pocket?

Humbly Seek Godly Counsel and Prayer

Coming face to face with their stark inability to defend themselves against the superpower Assyria, King Hezekiah did what any godly king would do, he humbled himself before the living God whose limitless power ALONE was able to deliver them. Tearing his clothes and wearing sackcloth, Hezekiah went into the temple of the Lord and sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah asking for prayer. What about you?  Are you in this battle alone? Or have you reached out to the family of God requesting prayer?  

Spread it All Out Before the Lord

But it is in King Hezekiah’s prayer and what follows after, that I find the most hope. Having received a written threat from the King of Assyria openly insulting God and His ability to deliver them, Hezekiah went before the Lord and spread it out before Him.  

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.  And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:  ‘Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

 ‘It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.  They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands.  Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.’ (Isaiah37: 14-20 NIV)

Here is my shortened, highlighted version:

You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth, hear, see, deliver us, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.  

Oh, I have so much to learn from this prayer. Who am I praying to? The One who made heaven and earth. Does he hear and see? He sure does. Can He deliver us? Without a doubt.

Wait for His Deliverance

So, when I’m desperate, distraught by the seemingly insurmountable problems I’m faced with, I can do like King Hezekiah, I can humble myself before the living God, seek godly counsel and prayer, and spread out the details before the Lord. Then I wait, for surely, He will answer.

And when I read the words: ‘Because you have prayed to me . . . this is the word the Lord has spoken', I feel God whispering to me, ‘keep praying, I’m hearing and I’m seeing, don’t give up, have faith, trust that your deliverance will come’.  

Such words of hope and assurance!

Yet, if I’m honest, sometimes I wish my deliverance was like King Hezekiah’s. Quick and overtly miraculous. A vast army wiped out in an instant, the retreat of the boastful Assyrian King, clearly the hand of God at work. But my deliverance has not been quick. In fact, though I often see glimmers of hope, the threat remains very real.  

But the more I lean into God and His Word, I’m reminded, that sometimes the rescue takes time and often it can be scary. I mean, just think of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea. What do you think it felt like crossing over the seabed with walls of water towering on either side? Not the most comfortable feeling, I imagine. So, yes, I keep praying, assured that God hears and sees and is both willing and able to bring deliverance. And most of all, I’m learning more and more to trust His timing. When deliverance comes, it will be clear; it is entirely by the hand of the LORD, and He ALONE is God.

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What about you?

In what area of your life are you desperate for God’s deliverance?

For a fresh burst of hope and assurance that God hears, sees, and saves read the full account of King Hezekiah’s response to the Assyrian threat in 2 Kings 18 & 19 or Isaiah 36 & 37.

God’s Word is indeed alive and active, and useful for equipping us for the good work of persevering in prayer.

 

May grace and peace be multiplied to you,

Carlie
 

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When God is the Only One Who Can Help