Oh restore me to health and make me live! – Isaiah 38:16
Hezekiah responds to the promise of verse 5 with the prayer of verse 16. God said, “I will add fifteen years to your life” (38:5). Hezekiah prays, “Oh restore me to health and make me live!” (38:16).
Faith prays for what God has promised. “Lord, do what you have said! Heal me! Give me those 15 years!”
My pastor, Derek Prime, would often say, “Pray with an open Bible.” When you see what God has promised in His Word, the right response is to pray that you will know what He has promised in your own experience.
So, you read in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” What do you do next? Do you say, “Oh that’s nice: God gives strength,” and then carry on? No! You pray that what God has promised will be yours. Lord, I need the strength that only you can give. Give this strength to me today.
Or you read in 1 Peter 1:8, about how people who love and believe in Christ rejoice with an inexpressible joy. Do you say, “Isn’t it nice that some Christians have more joy than they can put into words”? No! You say, “If this is possible for them, then it is possible for me.” Lord, increase my joy.
Then you will look at why they had such joy, and you see it is because they have a risen Savior, a living hope, and a glorious inheritance (1:3-4). So, you ask God to increase your joy in these things.
Faith turns God’s promises into prayers. So, pray with an open Bible.
What would keep you from praying God’s promises more?
