Dealing with your problems effectively

Hezekiah sparked a great revival in Judah and managed to turn the nation of Judah around from great distress to great success. The approach he took to achieve this is remarkable, and sets a good example of how we can deal with our problems effectively.

Hezekiah became a king at the age of 25, following the death of his father, king Ahaz.

“Now in the time of his distress 
King Ahaz became increasingly 
unfaithful to the LORD.” 2 Chronicles 28:22

His father Ahaz was a terrible king, who reigned 16 years in Judah. Wicked Ahaz set himself against all the policies of his forefathers. He reintroduced Baal worship; revived Moloch worship (idols); and burned his own sons in fire! He did those things in hope of finding help from those gods. “But it helped him not.” Poor Ahaz.

Syria and Israel attacked him from the north; Edomites from the east; and Philistines from the west. And Judah was brought very low because of Ahaz.

Following Ahaz’s death, his son Hezekiah became king in his place.

Hezekiah inherited all the troubles left by his father. He became king over a disorganised nation that was under the heavy burden of taxes to Assyria. Many of the nation’s women and children had been taken into captivity. There was a general feeling of shame, despair and demoralisation throughout the country. Things could not get much worse than they already were.

But as soon as Hezekiah took the kingdom he began to make immediate changes. What changes? A new plan for the economy? A peace treaty with the enemy nations? A tax reform? A stimulus plan? No!

Let’s look at what he did and how he did it.

“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.” (2 Chr 29:3)

Years earlier, his father Ahaz had “...shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.” (2 Chr 28:24)  So the first thing Hezekiah did, as soon as he became king, was to open the doors of the House of the Lord and repair them.

In other words, when Hezekiah became a king and saw the widespread misery and shame all over the country, he stopped to think why all that was happening. He began to search for the reason behind that situation. He began to trace the roots of the problem. And what did he discover?

Hezekiah found out that the root of all those problems was in the fact that the worship to God had been discontinued throughout the land. He noticed that the people were not seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, anymore. On the contrary, they were worshipping other gods and sacrificing to them on the altars that had been set up in every corner of Jerusalem!

So he immediately took action to open the Temple of God and repair it, so the people could burn incense (their prayers) and offer sacrifices, thus restoring their relationship with God.

In the same way, we need to take a look at our problems. What is the reason behind them? How far down can we trace the root of our problems? What caused them? Why did they start?

Hezekiah knew that to change the miserable situation of his country he had to deal with it at root level. If you want to change a situation in your life, you must do the same. Find the root of your problem first, then deal with it.

You will probably notice, as Hezekiah did, that the root of your problem comes from some fault or gap in your relationship with God. Deal with it at this level, and the rest will take care of itself.

Visit my blog

Women's Articles

For Youths