Studies on Prayer: Vol. 1Намуна

Everyone needs help sometimes and our best help is found in God. We have decisions to make, futures to plan for, and difficult moments of controversy or decision. We also have a God who wants to enable us to face our challenges with His help and wisdom. We have examples throughout Scripture of people praying to the Lord, and then acknowledging the help they had received had come from God.

Asa was the great-grandson of King Solomon. Israel was divided into two kingdoms after the death of Solomon, the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. For forty-one years King Asa ruled over Judah. In his early years, he destroyed the altars of the pagan gods and commanded the people to return to the biblical worship of God that their forefathers had known. God blessed Asa with peace for the first ten years of his reign, and he amassed an army of 580,000 men. Then Asa received word that the Ethiopian king was planning to wage war on Judah.

Asa’s close, personal relationship with God had prepared him for his challenges. The best way to seek God’s help in difficult times is to seek His help daily. E.M. Bounds wrote, “God shapes the world by prayer.” Pray before you study and ask God to use this lesson to help shape you and your life today.

1. What did King Asa do that helped to restore the relationship between the kingdom of Judah and God? (2 Chronicles 14:1–6)

2. What was Asa able to accomplish because his country was at peace? (2 Chronicles 14:7–8)

3. When we pray for our nation, what should we expect from God? From one another?

4. What victory have you been praying for? Is your prayer something God is able to honor?

“God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength." —Charles Spurgeon