On How To Pray

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Our purpose in life is to praise the Lord and speak of His faithfulness (Isaiah 38: 18-19) so when we pray, do not pray for our own protection or for our own benefit, but pray in order that God may be glorified. 

In Isaiah chapter 37, we see Hezekiah cry out to God to save Judah. But he doesn’t ask for Judah’s salvation. He asks that God may prove Sennacherib wrong so that the world will see that God is not like the wooden and stone gods of the other nations. 

In Isaiah chapter 38, Hezekiah is given 15 more years of life, after an illness that was meant to kill him. But he doesn’t say that God has given him life for Hezekiah’s benefit. He says instead that he has been humbled by God - that he has been kept alive because if he was dead he would be unable to sing God’s praises. A dead Hezekiah would be unable to hope for God’s faithfulness or tell his children about the Lord’s faithfulness. 

Why is God against those who are proud? Because humility allows you to see that all things are for God, and about God. When we are so confident in our own greatness and ability, it becomes harder to seek God’s kingdom first because we are so blinded and enamoured by our own. 

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