There's Hope For TodaySample

Bad news often comes in the form of a letter. I remember the nausea I felt when I received a special letter from the Internal Revenue Service. I read, I wept, I prayed, I appealed, and I won. That letter was a snap when I compare it to a few poison letters I’ve received from angry parishioners. I needed someone to sound a bell between paragraphs so that I could run to my corner and clear my head.

I really shouldn’t complain. I know men and women who have opened letters from their spouses; letters that amounted to final notice on a marriage and a family. I’ve walked into homes where a doctor’s letter lay isolated on a table. The test results were positive ... options for treatment were limited. Not so long ago in America, mothers and fathers dreaded that government letter that began, “We regret to inform you …”

The letter Hezekiah received was just as devastating, but Hezekiah shows us how to deal with bad news. Rather than spread it around the kingdom, he spread it out before the Lord. Before he called a staff meeting, he called upon the Lord.

God knows our troubles before the letters are posted. How it must please Him when we come alone to seek Him first.