Defeat Your Enemy While with Him
Spread it Out – Part 1

Scripture Reading:  2 Kings 19:9-13

Key Verse:  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.

We must understand that we win our battles with the devil, in a large part, before we ever encounter him.  It is in our prayer life that we gain the strength and wisdom to defeat the enemy of our souls.  A strong and consistent prayer life means a strong and consistent pattern of victory over temptation.

            In our scripture for today we have an example of winning the battles in prayer before the actual battle occurs.  King Hezekiah had received a threatening letter from a powerful enemy, the King of Assyria.  In this letter, the pagan king listed all the armies he had already defeated.  He taunted King Hezekiah, saying the king’s God could not stop the Assyrian army.

            I like King Hezekiah’s response to that news.  He went up to the temple of the Lord and spread the letter out before the Lord.  In his prayer he honored God as the only true and living God.  He also admitted that the Assyrian kings had laid waste to many other nations.  King Hezekiah went on to plead for God to deliver the nation of Judah from the attack of the Assyrians.  In 2 Kings 19:35 we read God’s response: “That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.”  Lay our problems before the Lord!  (Continued)

Father, I honor you as the only true and living God.  I spread before you my struggles, trusting you for help.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.