Mar 13, 2019
Let’s face it, It’s easy to sing God’s praises when everything is going your way. When all is right with your world, praise comes naturally and effortlessly. It’s only normal. But what about those times when things don’t turn out quite the way you expect or desire them to? Does your praise for God flow quite as easily when the going gets tough? In today’s passage, Isaiah 38:9-21, we have recorded a song of thanksgiving, written by King Hezekiah in response to God’s announcement that, rather than immediate death, he would enjoy an additional 15 years of life. The king is ecstatic and expresses his gratefulness to God. He also shares the range of emotions he experienced while waiting to see if God was going to answer his prayer. In these verses, Hezekiah displays a natural human reaction to suffering and pain. He wanted deliverance from it. But the real lesson to be learned from this story is whether we are ready, willing, and able to praise God, even when the circumstances of life give us no reason to do so.