What Comes Before Now

[S] Isaiah 37:20 --
20  "Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God."

[O] The word "Now" transitions Hezekiah's prayer from acknowledging who God is and what He is made of in verse 16 -- O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.  We tend to think of prayer as a way to make requests (thus we call it prayer requests) to God but before requests must come the recognition of who He is and why we need to make requests to Him.  If He is not better than we are, then why waste time making requests to Him.  It is only when I acknowledge that God is much bigger than what I can do my requests carry some weight and value.

[A] Before jumping into a list of my "requests" for God to do for me, I should worship and praise Him for who He is and what He is able to do in and around my life.  Then and only then my prayers like Hezekiah's prayer portrayed here will display His power and my requests answered in His ways and timing.

[P] Dear Father, I humbly fall before You today to fully acknowledge how BIG You are in my life and how You sit above all of this world in Heaven to lead us and to guide us to love us into Your bosom.  I cannot wish anything more than just that, to be right in Your presence because You hold and uphold me.  May this life of 1/6.5 billionth of this world give You joy because I will praise You and worship You despite my circumstances as I pray all this in Your amazing name.  Amen.