Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

May 12, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO HELP ME WHEN I AM DESPERATE (part 3)

II Kings 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore

“O LORD, remember”

In his desperation, Hezekiah tries to remind God of a few things.

First, he tells God how he WALKED.

“I have walked before thee..”. He tells God that he walked in an “HONEST” way. He used the phrase “in truth”. I do not know about you, but as hard as I have tried to be honest, I cannot say that I have always been honest. I mean there are many levels of dishonesty. I feel that if I claimed to always be honest, I would ruin it right there. Then he tells God that he has walked in a “HOLY” way. He said “with a perfect heart”. Now I do not know about all that. I don’t know anybody that has a “perfect” heart. That is a pretty bold statement. I would be afraid to claim that to God, because I know myself.

Second, he tells a God how he WORKED.

HE SAID, “I have done that which is good in thy sight”. It reminds me of the phrase in the book of Psalms:

*          Psalm 36:2  “For he flattereth himself in his own eyes…”

No I will admit that, probably, Hezekiah really believed that he had done these things. He probably convinced himself of the good that he had done. Maybe he saw himself as completely honest, perfect, and as an individual that always did that which was good. The problem is that the Bible says “there is none good, no not one.” That is how we are sometimes though. We rarely see our shortcomings, and see ourselves in such a biased way. Nothing is really our fault, we did not cause that, and we have “always” tried to right.

Now I do not know if Hezekiah literally felt these certain things, or if he was simply trying to point out the times that he had done right. He was right about one thing. He mentions in this passage that he “walked before thee”, and “in thy sight”. He was right about that. God saw everything. As the last verse in Ecclesiastes says:

*          “14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

God does not need to be reminded of anything. If you did it, He saw it. If you thought it, He knows. God knows if we are being honest. God knows if we have been Holy. God knows if we have worked and given our best for Him. He knows the real “us”. He knows the part that others cannot see. Are you getting desperate yet?