Our prayer motivator verse from the Word of God today is II Kings 20:1-5 which reads: “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, 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. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.” Allow me to share with you some important points regarding this verse from Matthew Henry’s Commentary: Warning brought him to prepare for death. It is brought by Isaiah, who had been twice, as stated in the former chapter, a messenger of good tidings to him. We cannot expect to receive from God’s prophets any other than what they have received from the Lord, and we must welcome that, be it pleasing or unpleasing. The prophet tells him, That his disease is mortal, and, if he be not recovered by a miracle of mercy, will certainly be fatal: Thou shalt die, and not live. That therefore he must, with all speed, get ready for death: Set thy house in order. This we should feel highly concerned to do when we are in health, but are most loudly called to do when we come to be sick. Set the heart in order by renewed acts of repentance, and faith, and resignation to God, with cheerful farewells to this world and welcomes to another; and, if not done before (which is the best and wisest course), set the house in order, make thy will, settle thy estate, put thy affairs in the best posture thou canst, for the ease of those that shall come after thee. Isaiah speaks not to Hezekiah of his kingdom, only of his house. David, being a prophet, had authority to appoint who should reign after him, but other kings did not pretend to bequeath their crowns as part of their goods and chattels. We will discuss this passage further in the next broadcast. My personal encouragement today is this: a second reason why we faint in prayer is because of delay. We think that God is on our time and that He pays every Friday. But we must remind ourselves that God is on His own time and like the old preachers down in Georgia used to say: “God may not come when you want Him to but He’s always right on time.” Remember, a day is like a thousand years to God and a thousand years is like one day to God. For those of you who have been saved a while, we know that time after time God has delivered us—right on time. When things seemed hopeless, God brought us through. He heard our prayer. Bank on it, dear friends, God wants to hear your prayer more than you want to pray. He delights in hearing us pray to Him. He wants to answer our prayers. He wants to bless us. He delights in blessing us. But, most importantly, He wants to hear from us. Our prayer motivator quote today is from E.M. Bounds. He said: “Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world.”

• published: 07 Sep 2014
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