Prayer is the Most Real Thing

May God be so kind as to bless all of us with a thirst and a burning that can only be satisfied by times of genuine, humble, desperate, glorious prayers.  In Isaiah 37:14-20 King Hezekiah prays first about the grim situation: the Assyrians were threatening to besiege and destroy Jerusalem.  

Hezekiah prayed first by adoring God as the covenant Lord who had saved His people from Egypt and who rules over all of His creation, controlling the hosts of angelic warriors.  Then, when Hezekiah made his plea for God's salvation. It was both desperate and for God's glory.  The Assyrians had compared the LORD to the gods of the nations, claiming they would destroy God just like all the other gods.  Hezekiah asked to be saved so that all the nations might know that God is unique because He is alive!  Then God responded with a mighty answer.  He sent His angel to punish the arrogant Assyrians, and the angel killed 185,000 Assyrian troops in a night!  God in His sovereignty delighted to put into Hezekiah's heart a burning to pray. Then God ordered events to bring about such a mighty salvation according to Hezekiah's prayer.  Prayer matters!  

May we therefore as followers of Christ consider prayer the most important part of our lives.  E.M. Bounds was correct when he called prayer "the most real thing!" (E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer, 25).  Christians, please let's be done with boring, self-centered, lame and bland prayers offered for a few scrap minutes as we can squeeze them in.  May God so amaze us that we go regularly and desperately to our knees for His glory and for the salvation of the world.