If you haven’t been there yet, you will be. Mark it down. There will be those times when there is nothing else you can do. There is nowhere else to turn. You need big-time help and you need it now. You need God.
Maybe you read that first paragraph and nodded your head. When despair, helplessness, and hopelessness are mentioned, they resonate deep within. You understand what it means to be swept up in that current and somehow live to tell about it. You know exactly what I am writing about. You have been there and done that. And guess what? Times like that will probably happen again.
Maybe you don’t think such crises will ever happen to you. Just ask Asa.
All was going great for Asa. He was the golden boy. As the king of Judah, he seemed to be doing everything right. During his first ten years in office, he radically cleaned up and significantly built up the nation [2 Chron. 14:1-8].
That was a highly impressive decade as Asa did what was right in the eyes of God. He tore down the tools of pagan worship. He led his people to seek God and obey His commands. He strengthened the fortified cities and assembled a large, well-equipped army. He had every reason to assume his good fortune would continue and peace would perpetuate.
He was woefully wrong [2 Chron. 14:9-10] .
All was sweet and joyful in Judah until one decisive day when a dark cloud rolled up from Egypt. In the eye of the terrible tempest was Zerah, leading a massive war machine of one million Ethiopians and three hundred gleaming chariots. Asa would have to face a skilled opponent who had him outnumbered by over four hundred thousand troops, which was bad enough. But what made it worse were those three hundred war wagons. Judah had no defense against the awesome speed and power of the best modern weapons of mass destruction on the planet in 900 BC. It would be one of the most massive massacres in history.
How would you handle the horrible hopelessness of facing definite defeat and destruction? What do you usually do when things are bleak?
Asa did the right thing. He prayed one of the most effective prayers recorded in the Bible [2 Chron. 14:11]. How'd it turn out? [2 Chron. 12-15].
HELP US, O LORD OUR GOD
What an excellent pattern for effective prayer! The prayer is short-only twenty-seven words in Hebrew—and complete. Moreover, Asa’s simple petition consists of three outstanding components of effective prayer:
1. He opened with appropriate words of praise.
2. He stated the petition clearly and succinctly.
3. He gave God the reasons he expected Him to answer.
Desparation always makes us pray more.
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