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Jul 25, 2023 06:00am

Prayer Matters

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(The following is a family devotional guide with suggested questions and scriptures.)

Talk Time

You are a king in charge of God’s people. You get word that three different armies just entered your land called Judah. This is not a meet and greet situation – this is imminent war. In fact, they have already overtaken one of your cities. You are vastly outnumbered, and you have only a few days before they reach you and your city, Jerusalem. You are afraid. As the leader of your people, what do you do?

Bible Connection

This is not a fictional scenario. This was an actual event recorded in the Bible. The king’s name was Jehoshaphat (pronounced: Ju-hosh-uh-fat) and his people were the Israelites. King Jehoshaphat became king when he was 35 years old and reigned for 25 years. He was a king who sought the Lord and removed idols in his land. He encouraged his people to fear God, keep His commands, do the right thing, and live with integrity. He reinstated King David’s plan of having priests going from town to town teaching people God’s Word and showing them how to live. Because of his commitment to the Lord, surrounding nations that lived close to Judah became afraid of the Israelites’ God. As a result, there was a time of peace in which Jehoshaphat’s kingdom grew stronger, built fortresses, and gained brave warriors. Then, one day, things changed…

Read 2 Chronicles 20:1-4 and see what the problem was.

Three neighboring pagan nations came against King Jehoshaphat and the Israelites. By the time King Jehoshaphat found out about it, the enemies were only 50 miles away! Instead of calling a meeting with his commanders and preparing for this battle, he called for a fast and for all the people to come together and seek the Lord. Once gathered, he prayed a powerful three-part prayer in which he worshipped the Lord first and foremost.

First, he praised God as the God of his ancestors, the God in Heaven, and the ruler over all kingdoms on earth (including the ones about to attach him!). He honored God’s power and strength. This is worship at its best: When you are desperately needing God’s help, but before you give your requests, you take time to worship who God is.

Second, King Jehoshaphat shows gratitude by thanking God for all of His interventions in the past for the Israelites – anytime disaster fell upon them and they cried out to God, He saved them.

Third, he ended his prayer in the most humble, most dependent way: “We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.”

In this very simple three-part prayer, King Jehoshaphat demonstrated the beauty of worship, of gratitude, and of surrender. As a result, God spoke through a prophet and told them that this would be His battle and to go and face this enemy, trusting that God would fight for them.

The Israelites got up early the next morning. Before they headed out, Jehoshaphat reminded them to believe God and His prophets, and they would succeed. The best part of Jehoshaphat’s response is this: before leaving, Jehoshaphat listened to the advice of his people, placing the worshippers in front of his army, and as they marched to the battle site, they worshipped God. They sang, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His faithful love endures forever.” The moment they started praising God, God set an ambush on the 3 armies. He created confusion among the armies so that they started attacking each other, and by the time King Jehoshaphat’s army arrived, there was no one left alive! There was so much plunder to take from these 3 armies, it took the Israelites three days to gather it all up! On the 4th day, they gathered together and praised God. Not only that, they went back home joyfully and continued to praise God in their temple. The surrounding pagan nations heard about what happened and lived in fear of God’s people. God gave King Jehoshaphat and his people peace on every side.

Faith Connection

Jehoshaphat’s story showed us that God loves it when we worship Him. God loves it when we thank Him. God loves it when we depend upon Him, and Him alone. We may not always feel like doing these things when life gets tough, but God shows us that when we do, we will experience Him!