What Faith Looks Like - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Kings 19:14-16,

"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. And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 'Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God...'"

When King Hezekiah of Judah received a threatening letter from Sennacherib, king of Assyria (the nation that destroyed northern Israel), he took the letter to the temple and laid it out before the Lord. He sought the Lord's intervention, help and strength to ward off this lethal enemy.

We are told in 2 Kings 18:5, "Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him." Here he manifests his faith by seeking refuge and help from the Lord. This is what faith looks like.

This was not all Hezekiah did in response to that which was threatening, but clearly, he sought the Lord's help with what was an insurmountable danger. He displayed the same confidence in the Lord as seen in David's confession in Psalm 18:2, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."

This is what faith looks like. This is how faith acts. This is the confidence of faith. This is the assurance of faith.

The great threat all of us face is the Lord's wrath looming over each one of us for the sin in our lives. We will all face judgment day with the Lord as our judge. It is by faith and faith alone that we can find refuge from this horrific threat by embracing the Lord himself in the kind of faith that Hezekiah demonstrated twenty-seven hundred years ago.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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