Enjoy Life, Enjoy God

SPREAD IT OUT

October 26, 2010

Do you know what it means to "hold your cards close to the chest?" It means not letting anyone know what's going on in your mind, your life, etc. Please, please, please, don't do that with your God.

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.
- Isaiah 37:14 NRS

King Sennacherib and his army overwhelm Hezekiah with terror as he faces the surrender demand. All the evidence points Hezekiah to be rightfully afraid. But he goes to prayer, in the face of the surrender demand, with the voices of his friends and counselors begging Hezekiah to surrender...instead he goes to prayer. He "spreads it out before the Lord."

Are you surrounded today, overwhelmed, not knowing what to do, how to face what seems like defeat on every side? "Spread it out before the Lord." That's what Hezekiah did. He held nothing back. He told it all to the Lord. And in the end God told him, "For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David." (35) Go ahead. Get on with it. Spread it out now before the Lord in prayer.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson