February 19, 2010 2 Kings 20 and more inspiration from Spurgeon
Imagine that scene...the shadow which is already resting down the steps of Ahaz goes back up by ten steps. Sometimes it appears that God wants to give signs and other times He does not. Just that alone will be interesting to ask Him someday. What orchestration of times and events; it all fits together somehow. The execution of a plan that spans thousands of years is something to think about. Full of all those little details like when to give a sign, when to heal, when to rescue and when to send your son to do his job.
Check out Spurgeon’s Morning devotion for today and the shadow.
Morning Verse
"Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." Ezekiel 36:37
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true in your own personal experience. God has given you many an unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the prelude of great mercy with you. When you first found peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and earnestly interceding with God that He would remove your doubts, and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you have been able to say, "I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing's shadow. When the sunlight of God's mercies rises upon our necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy. Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value of it. If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly.
"Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above."
I am infatuated with lights in the dark. Here are a few from this morning:
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