Motive For Victory

“Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD God, even thou only.” (2Ki 19:19 AV)

This is why Hezekiah was such a good king.  His motive was right.  The city of Jerusalem lay besieged by Assyria.  Assyria had conquered all the nations around Judah.  Their reckoning was the gods of the lands could not withstand the mighty army of the Assyrians.  Hezekiah knew all other gods were false gods.  He was not concerned the one true God could be defeated by Assyria like all other false gods were.  Therefore, Hezekiah’s prayer was founded in the necessity of the glory of the one true God and not any fear of defeat.  This motive will get answered prayer every time!

We have all sorts of motives for the desires we wish from the LORD.  Some of them may be a bit on the selfish side.  Others perhaps have the best interests of the individuals in mind.  For the most part, our motives are pure.  We desire a certain end that others or ourselves may not have to suffer from things.  The question for this morning is:  Do we ask for those things strictly because it would bring glory to God?  That is a hard question.  If we were to reflect upon that motive it would probably change a few of our requests.  What is in our heart’s desire may not be in the best interest of the glory of God.  It may be that things turn out well, but in the end, the glory of God did not advance nary a hair.

God did answer this prayer.  He did so to set Himself apart from the gods of the heathen nations around Judah.  He did so that He would show Himself to the one and only true God.  This is in part based on Hezekiah’s willingness to declare the glory of God when God answered.  His faithfulness prior to the need revealed his integrity and worth for the answer he sought.  Do we seek answers strictly for the glory of God?  Or, do we seek them for some other reason?