In II Kings 19:19, King Hezekiah finished his prayer with these words, “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.” Hezekiah was in a difficult situation. The Assyrians were breathing down their necks and threatening to destroy them. His only hope was to beg God for deliverence, which he did. However, there is another aspect to his prayer that we must consider. Hezekiah asked God to save them and then he said, “…that all the kingdoms of the eath may know that thou art the LORD God…” I believe this is the reason why God answered Hezekiah’s prayer. This is the reason why God sent his angel and slew 185, 000 Assyrians in one night. It was because Hezekiah has the right motive for his prayers. Sure he needed deliverence, but that we secondary to God receiving glory and people seeing the power of God. Too often we pray selfish prayers and as a result we do not have our prayers answered. When we pray with the desire to make God’s power known to those around us, our prayers are pleasing to our God. We praise the Lord for all the many, many answers to prayer that we have seen recently. My wife and I have tried during our prayers and after the prayers were answered to give God all the glory. The Lord is looking for those who will be vessels through which He can display His mighty power.
