For the last eight years of my working career, before I refocused — not retired — I was the international controller of the pipeline engineering firm that I had been with for many years. I was in charge of the financial and accounting activities of our offices in Europe and the Middle East as far as India. At one time, we had projects and offices in five different countries. There were considerable differences in the way that things were done in some of those countries, and at times, there were problems for which I would have to find a solution. Sometimes, I just did not know what to do. On those occasions, I would call one of my contacts in our head office, and we would discuss the problem. Sometimes, we would meet at a convenient time or location to see if we could find a solution.

In Isaiah 37, we read that Hezekiah had a problem, too. The king of Assyria, Sennacherib, was on the verge of taking Jerusalem by force. He had written a letter to Hezekiah advising him not to be deceived by his God telling him that everything would be all right, when Assyria had destroyed the other countries all around. His advice to Hezekiah was that making peace without a struggle would save him a lot of grief and a lot of lives, since he was going to lose anyway.

Hezekiah decided that he needed God's help with this problem, and he took the letter to the temple and spread it out before the Lord, as the Bible says:

Isaiah 37:15-17 – Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: "O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God." (NIV)

It is as if he were saying, "Here, Lord, read this. This is Your problem, too. This is about Your city and Your land and Your people, and frankly, Lord, I don't know what to do about this. Please, Lord, read it and give me an answer."

There are times when we have personal problems, and like Hezekiah, we may not know what to do. Then, it is time that we should open up our hearts and talk to God, telling Him all our problems. Then quite often, through faith and prayer, we will be shown what to do.

Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful that we can come to You in prayer with all our concerns and also with our thanks for the good things in our lives. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.

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About the author:

Joel Jongkind <austria67@bmts.com>
Meaford, Ontario, Canada
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