10 April | EVERYONE

GOD ADDS FIFTEEN YEARS OF LIFE TO THE KING

"Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.’ And Hezekiah wept bitterly." 2 Kings 20:2-3

You may not be able to see it from your personal angle, from the mist of your human eyes, from the cavern of the pain of your nostalgia. You may not see it, or understand it, but the best time for a child of God to rest is when the Lord, in His wonderful wisdom, allows them to rest. It is a shame that human beings are so attached to life. Perhaps it is so because we were not created to die but to live. In every cell, we breathe the vocation for life. Death is an intruder that crept into our experience through sin. Hezekiah did not understand God's purposes. Therefore, when he knew that he had little time left to live, he wept, cried, and pleaded. And God added fifteen more years of life to him.

Time, however, is an inexorable judge. Time took it upon itself to show him that the Lord is not mistaken. In those extra years of life, Hezekiah had a son, Manasseh, who was the worst king of Israel. And when the Assyrians came to visit him because of his miraculous healing, the king showed them the treasures, instead of praising the glory of God; recklessly, it gave rise to the greed of visitors. Years later, they would return, bringing destruction to his people.

Trusting God, despite the apparent mysteries of pain, accepting His plans, even though from our perspective there is no reason to do so, placing ourselves in the arms of the beloved Father like a little child sleeping peacefully on their mother's lap, is perhaps the greatest challenge for human beings.

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Learn to flee from your fears and to take shelter under the wings of the Almighty. He watches your footsteps as you cross the desert of this dangerous world.