|
The Bible says in Matthew 21:22 "And all
things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye
shall receive." Praying to the God of Heaven is
a great priviledge; the Bible says "Ask and ye shall
receive", Matthew7:7. It is clear that the Lord wants us to
come to Him and ask what we
will. However, there are some conditions that we must meet
in order toget them answered. First of all, the obvious
condition is to keep sin out
of our lives. Isaiah 59 states that it is our sins that have
separated us from God. I John 3:22 says, "And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of him,
because we keep his commandments, and do those things that
are pleasing in his sight." In order to receive we must keep
His commandments and then
as James 5:16 says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much." And then the scripture in
James goes on to give Elijah as
an example of a righteous man who God heard and answered in
doing greatthings. And starting at this point I would like
to look at a couple more
examples of people in the Bible who God heard and answered
and why. Let's look at the life of Hezekiah; on two
different occasions,
one in II Kings 19 and 20, God heard and answered Hezekiah's
prayer .First, in II Kings 19:15-19 Hezekiah spread a
letter from the king of
Assyria before the Lord and prayed this prayer, "O LORD God
of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art
the God, even thou alone,
of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and
earth. LORD, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, LORD, thine
eyes, and see: and hear
the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach
the living God.Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have
destroyed the nations and
their lands, And have cast their gods into the fire: for
they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and
stone: therefore they have
they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, I
beseech thee ,save thou us out of his hand, that all the
kingdoms of the earth may know
that thou art the LORD God, even thou only." As you read
that prayer it is evident how he is lifting up the Lord and
bragging on Him. The Lord
enjoys it when you lift Him up and will be much quicker to
answer. Also,the Lord had to vindicate Hezekiah and Himself
because of Hezekiah's
clean life and for His own name's sake, to prove that He was
God. Then in II Kings 20, the Lord sent Isaiah to tell
Hezekiah he was going to die;
Hezekiah prayed this prayer in verse 3, "I beseech thee, O
LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth
and with a perfect heart, and
have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept
sore." I want you to notice what reason Hezekiah brought
before the Lord to grant
him a longer life; again it was the cleaness of his life
that He brought before the Lord. And the Bible says in verse
5 that the Lord told
Hezekiah this, "I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy
tears: behold, Iwill heal thee:" It was his tears that the
touched the Lord's heart. We
have to pray with a sincere heart and let those tears flow.
Let's take a quick look at Hannah; we all know how that she
prayed for the Lord to give her a son and God heard her. But
why he heard her may surprise you; it wasn't just because
she wanted a child and I am
convinced that was not her driving force for even asking.
First of all,she did not ask to consume it upon her lust.
James 4:3 says, "Ye ask, and
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your lusts." She was willing to give that son back to
the Lord, she wasn't
asking for a son for her own enjoyment. Secondly, the main
reason she asked was to get the victory over her adversary.
In I Samuel chapter one
it says that her adversary vexed her and we know that in her
prayer of praise after she had Samuel she says this in
chapter 2:1, "My heart
rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my
mouth isenlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy
salvation." The
first thing that she thanked the Lord for was given her
victory over her enemy. The Lord hears the cries of the
afflicted; he heard hers.
I hope that this has been a blessing to you. Merry Christmas
to you all.
Sis. Tanya |
in the
