2 Chronicles 20:5-13 The Essential Content of Prayer

Written by Paul J Bucknell on August, 25, 2022

2 Chronicles 20:5-13 (3) The Essential Content of Prayer

Prayer is how we give our trust to God.

“Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, and he said, “O LORD, the God of our fathers, art Thou not God in the heavens? And art Thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Thy hand so that no one can stand against Thee.

“Didst Thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Thy friend forever? And they lived in it, and have built Thee a sanctuary there for Thy name, saying, ‘Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before Thee (for Thy name is in this house) and cry to Thee in our distress, and Thou wilt hear and deliver us.’

“And now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom Thou didst not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt (they turned aside from them and did not destroy them), behold how they are rewarding us, by coming to drive us out from Thy possession which Thou hast given us as an inheritance. O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee.”

And all Judah was standing before the LORD, with their infants, their wives, and their children” (2 Chr 20:5-13).

God fully displays His full power, glory, and love in the church. We need to be a praying church. It grieves me how so few churches have prayer meetings. It is even worse when we see how many Christians pray when they do pray, focusing on meeting their needs. We can expect this from a small child, but how long will it take before we think of our neighbors and the needs of others. In verses 5-13, we find the king’s prayer. It is a fantastic prayer to study. We are not suggesting that a good prayer should imitate his, but that good prayers share similar characteristics. Let’s look at some of these worthy traits of prayer.

1) Our prayers are based on faith (2 Chr 20:5-9).

“O LORD, the God of our fathers, art Thou not God in the heavens? And art Thou not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Thy hand so that no one can stand against Thee. Didst Thou not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and give it to the descendants of Abraham Thy friend forever? And they lived in it, and have built Thee a sanctuary there for Thy name, saying, ‘Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before Thee (for Thy name is in this house) and cry to Thee in our distress, and Thou wilt hear and deliver us.’ (2 Chr 20:5-9)

I am amazed at how many prayers arise from our lips that are not accompanied by faith. These prayers aren’t real. We just “say our prayers.” We are not sure if anyone is listening or whether our prayers will make any difference. We might read a prayer or make up one, but the distinguishing trait of religious prayers is that they lack faith. We don’t really believe we are talking to God or that God is listening. Let’s contrast this with Jehoshaphat’s prayer.

He spoke to God. We note this by the ‘You’ (‘Thou’) he uses to address God. We can also sense his faith when he wrestles with God. “Didn’t you say this God?” We don’t talk like this unless we believe we are actually talking to someone.

(2) Our prayers are based on the Words and promises of God (2 Chr 20:5-9).

Looking at the same verses, we see the king declare the scriptures. He states what God has done. In verse 8 the king refers to Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 6-7. He had confidence that God would hear because He knows God’s Word.

So many of us neglect the serious reading of God’s Word. When we run into trouble, we turn to the scriptures. That is fine, of course, but the scriptures need to be in you before the testing.

In the king’s case, his faith and knowledge of the living God were already established. Satan, still brought all sorts of doubts to his mind, “If God really cared for me, He wouldn’t ….” “Is God really there?”

Did you ever have thoughts like these enter your mind. Those are temptations that the evil one whispered in your mind. Another one might be, “You’re a fool. God doesn’t really exist anyway.” Can you see how these thoughts would hold you back from crying out to God. But if you have the scriptures in your heart, you use the words of God to pray by faith.

Our trust is given to God in our prayer times.

(3) Our prayers are concerned with the will of God (2 Chr 20:10-13).

Jesus led His disciples to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Those that come to God in genuine prayer must genuinely seek God’s will.

We don’t use prayers to get something God doesn’t want. That is blatant manipulation. Those with a pure heart seek God’s will. We can only do this when we come to the cross. Here, we can truly meet God and trust in His love. We see and confess our foolish resistance to His will and His purposes for our lives. When we confess our sins and ask Him to forgive us in Christ’s Name (1 John 1:9), we, in Christ, seek for God’s will.

A friend sent me a prayer letter. He wrote,

“At church last Sunday, an estranged wife asked my wife for forgiveness for speaking unkindly to her. We had given her up to God, knowing that we were powerless to help her further, but His power was made manifest.”

Another instance of divine intervention came a few days earlier when a sister’s mother said she was more at peace with her daughter’s desire to follow God’s leading into some Gospel ministry. This is God’s doing.

Effective prayers always have to do with a person sincerely seeking out God’s answer for their prayer. We will see the reason for this later on. Why should God answer prayers that have nothing to do with His will? That is ridiculous. We will only become convinced of His will through the scriptures.

Application: Do you seek God regularly in His Word? What is holding you back? What are you asking Him for now? If it is not His will, do you really want those things? What things does God want that you are not seeking Him? Why not?