How To Handle Bad News (1)

‘…Hezekiah…spread it before the Lord.’ 2 Kings 19:14 NKJV

The Bible says: ‘Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone…have made Heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see…save us…that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”’ (vv15–19 NKJV) Hezekiah was in a hopeless situation. An army of 185,000 soldiers was amassed against him, planning to destroy him. But in answer to prayer, God sent an angel to wipe every one of them out. Sometimes bad news comes in the form of a letter, an email or a telephone call. It can come as the sound of screeching tyres and broken glass, a lump in your breast, a court date or a redundancy notice at work. Bad news knows no class lines, gender or age. It comes to us all. So what should you do when you have a problem you can’t resolve and can’t escape? Do what Hezekiah did: take it to the Lord in prayer. Spread it out before Him. But go to Him first, not last. When you do that you honour Him as ‘Lord’ of the situation and He will respond to you. God’s promise is: ‘He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.’ (Psalm 91:15 NKJV)