By Pastor Wayne Moore,
High Point Baptist Church
Prayer is a familiar concept to almost everyone. If you have ever sung the song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” you are also acquainted with the phrase, “take it to the Lord in prayer.” In Isaiah chapter 37 and verse 14, King Hezekiah does something interesting in prayer that suggests a unique application that you might consider the next time you bring a problem to the Lord in prayer – he literally takes his problem to the Lord. Here is how the verse reads in the King James Version: “And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.”
The letter that Hezekiah spread out before the Lord was a threat from the king of Assyria. You will have to read Isaiah chapters 36-37 to learn more about the crisis that Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem faced, and how the Lord answered his prayer. For now, I want you to contemplate how you can literally and physically take your problem to the Lord. But even before you do that, you may want to know why you should.
Physically taking your problem to the Lord when you pray can be a demonstration of your faith. It is more for your benefit than the Lord’s. He knows all and sees all. God is all-powerful and can answer from a distance, as Jesus proved when He healed the centurion’s servant in Luke 7:1-10. Literally taking your problem to the Lord is not about convincing yourself of His power; it is about being close to the Lord and turning your problems over to Him. It is a way of releasing the worry and anxiety of not knowing how to solve the problem yourself, and of trusting in God because He is all- wise and all-powerful.
The Gospels record many instances when people took their sick family or friends to Jesus to be healed. They took them because they believed He could heal them. Why else would they have gone to all that trouble? My favorite instance is of the four men who took their lame friend to Jesus but could not get to Him because of the crowd. They did not give up though. They found an uncommon way to get their friend right in front of Jesus. You can read about it in Mark 2:1-12.
What problem are you facing right now? What has you worried and bothered? Is it a threatening letter like Hezekiah received? Take it out of the envelope and unfold it before the Lord in that special place where you pray to Him. Is it a critical and unfair Facebook post someone has made about you? Open up the post before the Lord and turn it over to Him. Is it a wound or an injury that just won’t heal? Show it to the Lord and talk to Him about it. Is your problem all the bad news you read or hear? Mute the T.V., spread out the newspaper, and pray over it.
What if your problem is too big to take to your special place of prayer? The Gospels also include accounts of people asking Jesus to come with them to their homes to heal the sick. If you can’t take the problem to the Lord, take the Lord to the problem. It’s hard to get your broken-down car into your prayer closet, so go outside to your car and pop the hood and pray over it.
Whatever your problem is, think of a creative way to physically take it to the Lord in prayer. This is not a command in the Bible. Neither is it a magical way to get all your problems to disappear. The Lord may have a special purpose for you to endure the problem. Literally taking your problem to the Lord certainly does not enlighten Him. Taking your problem to the Lord is an expression of your faith and a way to submit it to God’s authority and not let it have authority over you.
I pray that you will find this unique way of praying to be a blessing to you.
