April 2, 2026 Devo

April 2nd, 2026

Powerful Words from the Prophets
After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the LORD’s Temple and spread it out before the LORD. And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the LORD: “O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. Bend down, O LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, O LORD, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God…Now, O LORD our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O LORD, are God.” - Isaiah 37:14-17, 20
“Lay It Before the Lord”

I love Hezekiah’s model in our passage today. After receiving the letter from the King of Assyria threatening to overthrow Jerusalem, he took it into the temple and laid it out before the Lord. Then he humbled his heart in prayer. This is so key. Hezekiah didn’t try to put on an air of pride or power before his people. He didn’t try to pretend as if the letter didn’t bother him, and that he had no fear. He didn’t blow the letter off as if it didn’t exist or try to create an illusion that the threat wasn’t real. He also didn’t try to sneak out of Jerusalem and run for the hills. He simply acknowledged that his problem was bigger than he was and laid it out before a God who was bigger than his problem!
Camp on this for a bit, because the implications are HUGE. How many of us have a hard time admitting when we’re in over our heads? How often do we put on pretend smiles for the people around us and say, “I’m fine.” How often do we try to act as if we can handle anything—even when we KNOW that what we’re dealing with is bigger than we are? Some of us even take our problems and pace the floor with them, somehow believing we can “worry them away.”
Learn from Hezekiah. Lay your problems before the Lord. Acknowledge that what you’re facing is bigger than you, but then give it to a God whom it is NOT bigger than! You don’t have to pretend that you’re not worried. We ALL worry. You don’t have to pretend as if you’re fine. NONE OF US are fine. God INVITES us to bring our struggles and troubles to Him. Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy with burdens, and I will give you rest.” You’ve carried that burden long enough. Time to lay it before the Lord. That’s God’s Word for you today.