“Prayers for an upcoming brain scan.” “That my kids would come back to church.” “Comfort for Dave, who lost his wife.” Our pastoral care team receives a weekly list of prayer requests like these so we can pray and send each person a handwritten note. The requests are overwhelming, and our efforts can feel small and unnoticed. That changed after I received a heartfelt thank-you card from Dave, the recently bereaved husband, with a copy of his beloved wife’s obituary. I realised anew that prayer matters.
Jesus modelled that we should pray earnestly, often and with hopeful faith. His time on earth was limited, but He prioritised getting away by Himself to pray (Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32).
Hundreds of years earlier, the Israelite king Hezekiah learned this lesson too. He was told that an illness would soon take his life (2 Kings 20:1). In distress and weeping bitterly, Hezekiah “turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord” (v. 2). In this instance, God’s response was immediate. He healed Hezekiah’s sickness, added fifteen years to his life, and promised to rescue the kingdom from an adversary (vv. 5-6). God answered his prayer not because Hezekiah was living a good life, but “for [his] own honour and for the sake of [his] servant David” ( v. 6 NLT). We may not always receive what we ask for, but we can be sure that God is working in and through every prayer.
By Karen Pimpo
REFLECT & PRAY
Who in your life needs prayer today? How can you remind yourself to pause and pray more frequently?
Heavenly Father, thank You for listening to my prayers.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Hezekiah witnessed the power of prayer when he cried out to God and He answered him (2 Kings 20:5-6). Prayer is also a prominent theme in the New Testament. Jesus encouraged it, and His life modelled it. The one who taught us to address God as “Father” in prayer (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2) did so Himself when He prayed: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25 ). Christ’s blueprint for prayer included prayer regarding temptation and protection from evil: “He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’ ” (26:39). Jesus modelled praying for our enemies (Luke 6:28) and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (23:34).
Arthur Jackson
Our mission is to make the life-changing wisdom of the Bible understandable and accessible to all.
