Turning Impossible Situations Around!

Welcome to a new week!

"In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, "Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: "Go and tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city. "Isaiah 38:1-6

In our text this week, Hezekiah faced a dire situation, an imminent death date prophesied by a respected prophet of God. It is one thing for a doctor to give a report of a terminal illness, but it is another thing entirely for God to prophesy through His prophet that you will die.

To get a proper understanding of our text, you will need to understand the two kinds of prophetic utterances in scriptures, the conditional and unconditional prophecies. A conditional prophecy can be changed based on the action of the individual. The prophecy of Isaiah to Hezekiah is an example of a conditional prophecy. Another example of a conditional prophecy is in the book of Jonah - when Jonah prophesied that Nineveh would be overthrown if they did not repent. Nineveh repented and they were spared.

The other type of prophecy is the unconditional prophecy. This prophecy speaks of events that are going to happen irrespective of human actions. An example is the prophecy of the coming of the Lord.

With this understanding, let's turn back to our text. Hezekiah faced a seemingly impossible situation. He was to start making preparation for his death. However, somehow, Hezekiah recognized that he could turn an impossible situation around. He decided to pray and plead his case before God. As a result, God turned the death sentence around, healed him and added more years to his life.

The lessons we can learn from Hezekiah concerning turning hopeless situations around is the subject of our LightPoints this week. Below are the steps the text gives us to turn impossible situations around:

1. When faced with impossible situations, recognize what can be changed and what should be left alone. This brings to mind a popular prayer attributed to Boethius, the Roman philosopher that I've seen on plaques in some homes. It reads: "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

The fact is that there are some things in your life that cannot be changed. You need to be able to live with them wisely. Examples of such things are: your skin color, background, parents, children, family relationships and very significantly, your past.

You can't change these things but they don't have to be disadvantages to you. Accept them and move on with your life and God will use them for His glory. There is no use worrying about your past mistakes. Don't live your life looking in the rearview mirror if you don't want to have a crash. God tells us what to do with our past in Philippians 3:12-14 from the example of Paul:

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

We are to forget the past and entrust it into God's hands. Don't make your past experiences a parking lot, but a freeway to a better future. Don't let them be obstacles but stepping stones to miracles in your future. There is a whole lot more ahead of you. Your past is a tiny drop in the mighty oceans of God's plans for your future.

You can't change your past but it doesn't have to define you. The bible is replete with examples of God using people with questionable and despicable pasts - from cheaters like Jacob to murderers like Paul. Even in the human genealogy of Jesus, there were individuals who didn't fit the mold, like Rahab, the prostitute, or Ruth, who belonged to a gentile tribe that had few or no rights in God's presence then.

The book of Ruth is an example of how God turns the past around. It tells the story of Naomi, a Godly woman who was struck with tragedy despite no fault of her own. Overcome by her past, she renamed herself "Bitter" thinking that her past would define the rest of her life. God, in his mercy, turned everything around for her by giving her a loyal daughter-in-law, Ruth, who eventually married a rich godly man and became the great grandmother of King David. God is a God of restoration.

2. Turn your face to the wall and pray. By turning to the wall, I do not mean literally but as a symbol of tuning the whole world out. It is coming to the end of you so God can take over. It is reaching the end of your rope so God can grab you. Helplessness is not hopelessness. When you are down to nothing, then God is up to something. Turn to him and pray. He delights in turning things around for His people. He specializes in the impossible. He can turn around captivities so you can laugh (Psalm 126). He turns mourning into dancing, weeping into joy ( Psalm 35), curses into blessings ( Deut 23:5), ashes into beauty ( Isaiah 61:3) and he can restore lost times and years (Joel 2:25).

If you will pray and cry out to Him like Hezekiah did, He will turn that impossible situation around for you.

Blessings this week,

Pastor Lan

 

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