HOPE-y New Year

2 Kings 19:14

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.

If there is one thing we’re so proud about our mother, it’s her devotion to the Lord. Her consistency in waking up very early in the morning for her bible reading and prayer time is admirable. Do you know that she keeps an accounting of our finances and brings it to her ‘meetings with God’? She would literally do the math in His presence and point out the imbalance in her sheets.  There and there she’d cry out her worries and her hopes for His miracle. Then God would remind her to flip back those pages and see His unfailing provisions in the past. As the sun rises anew, so will her faith. The resources may still be on the way, but the miracle already happened in her heart. She knew that today will be tomorrow’s past and her prayers now will be her next morning’s praise!

Hezekiah was introduced in this chapter as one who walked with God as David did. He devoted his first years in office to spiritual reforms – smashing idolatry and reestablishing temple worship. We’d expect rewards to flow and follow that rally for righteousness. But in the middle of his reign, Assyria marched against Judah and stopped that flow to the city. First their treasuries, then the water, then their morale. Sennacherib was taunting everything they could possibly hold on to. Through his messengers, he belittled their army, laughed at their allegiance with Egypt, questioned Hezekiah’s leadership and mocked their dependence on God. He even sent the king a letter to formalize his call to compromise. Hezekiah was here again pushed to wall, hardly breathing. But he did not call-a-friend or asked the audience or independently sorted if there’s still some 50/50 chance. He ran to his only lifeline and there laid the letter open, asking God to read every word and respond from heaven. He probably entered the temple still lame and feeble, but he sure left there strengthened and not a bit insecure. Now I know where my mom got that concept :>

We all want to end our year with books cleared and hearts at peace. But with ten days left, it’s a panic to meet that work quota, or pay our debts, or restore those broken relationships. For how can we even begin to restart life aright if we’d be carrying that weight over? We hate the thought that while others are celebrating Christmas, we’re down with workload, and long faces too. That while others are enjoying their friends and families, were skipping ours because of they can’t forgive us or the other way around. Your list may have more to it and you feel so pinned down. But truth says, there’s no such thing as unbearable. God made sure there’s a way of escape for everything.  Now, if we could all just jot down our cries, spread it out before the Lord and have the faith of Hezekiah (and my mom too!), then instead of still-dark dawn, it’d be the beauty of sunrise that will greet us in the morning. Hope-y New Year Everyone!