Praying at Wit’s End

What does God do when you start praying when you’re at your wit’s end? Have you thought about it? Have you ever experienced it? Today, I want us to think about what happens when we pray to God at our wit’s end.

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven… 2 Chronicles 32:20

In this story, the King of Assyria, Sennacherib, is invading Jerusalem. But before he invades the city, he makes a speech to allow the people of Jerusalem the opportunity to surrender to him. He goes as far as saying that God didn’t help the Israelites in the north, nor did any god help any other nation that he has invaded, and therefore it cannot be expected that God would do anything now. The king of Judah, on the other hand, makes a speech of his own. He, however, takes a play from a former Israelite military leader and a prophet, Joshua and the prophet Elisha. Hezekiah says, “Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. He has only human strength, but we have Yahweh our God to help us and to fight our battles.“ (Vv. 7-8). It would have been a brilliant speech if his city wasn’t already besieged by the Assyrian army. I mean, how can you tell people who are already prisoners in their own home to be strong and courageous? Moreover, how can you tell people who are surrounded on all sides that there is an army bigger than the army that has you surrounded? If I were there, I would’ve waved a white flag and rolled over. It was a hopeless situation. In fact, that’s what most of us would have done even at the sound of an oncoming army. But King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah had another idea– they prayed and cried out to heaven about it. Our human strength is nothing and we can all attest to that. But the power of God lies in our prayers and cries to Him. That is to say, not how loud we pray or wail; but rather, that we pray and wail. When we pray at wit’s end, it is the power of God that fights for us because there is nothing else in front of us. When we pray at wit’s end, we have surrendered to the power of God to deliver us. When we pray at wit’s end, we are relying in faith that God has put there in the first place. If this is the power or praying at our wit’s end, why are we not doing it then? Why do we only begrudgingly pray? You may have nothing left in your tank. You may be physically drained. You may be imperiled by a no-win situation. But praying at your wit’s end changes everything. It changes who fights our battles and who wins. Pray at your wit’s end. Get into it.