Isaiah was called to Hezekiah’s deathbed and gave him the news that he would not recover. Hezekiah pleaded with the Lord for his life and God answered. Isaiah 38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.” After his recovery, Hezekiah wrote about his experience and how he felt about the Lord.
Isaiah 38:15-20 But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this. Hezekiah acknowledges his healing was all God.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul. Hezekiah pledges to walk with God the reminder of his life.
16 Lord, by such things people live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live. Hezekiah thanks God for saving his life.
17 Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish. Hezekiah humbly admits his suffering was for his own benefit.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins Hezekiah is encouraged as God has taken away his sins
behind your back. and hidden them.
18 For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living—they praise you, Hezekiah reminds us it is the job of the living to praise God.
as I am doing today;
parents tell their children Hezekiah proclaims it is the job of the parent to teach their
about your faithfulness. children about God’s faithfulness. 20 The Lord will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives Hezekiah reminds the Israelites it is their privilege
in the temple of the Lord. to praise their God all their lives.
Hezekiah came to some profound conclusions that we can learn from and incorporate into our lives. He also challenges us to live each day with God in mind. When God rescues you from some circumstance or illness, are you quick to give Him the praise? Do you allow your healing or change of circumstances to be life altering and point you to God? Do you thank God for healing/rescuing you and then seek to see what benefits your received from the suffering? Hezekiah remembered the biblical truth that God allows things to happen in our lives to teach and grow us. James puts it this way in James 1:2-4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Hezekiah knew he was a sinner and had perhaps added to his own difficulties. He praised and thanked God for removing and hiding his sin behind his back. Micah 7:18-19 gives us the same principle, Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.
19 You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. Micah encourages all of us with the fact that God has removed our sins and has buried them in the depths of the sea. Both analogies tell us that God deals with our sin and then removes it. It is gone out of our sight and will be remembered by God no more. If you are constantly plagued by old sins you have confessed before God, then be assured God has removed them and they are gone. That guilt memory is from Satan as he wants us to wallow in defeat and be burdened by past sins. God has given us a clean slate through Jesus’ work on the cross so use it and put those sins away. God has.
Hezekiah also reminds us that it is a privilege in life to praise God and to teach our children about His faithfulness. How are you doing with that? Do you count it a privilege to worship and praise God? Do you seek to teach your children about God? As Hezekiah reminds us, praising and teaching is a privilege God has given to the living. We are to be about His work and continually give Him praise with thanksgiving in our hearts.
Let me end today with Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
May it be a praise on your lips.
Linda
As you gather around your Thanksgiving table today, let praise and thanks lead your discussion. David expressed it this way in Psalm 107:21-22 : 
you,” declares the 
As we enter the month of November that has our National Day of Thanksgiving, let us give thanks this whole month long for the things, people, places, hopes and dreams we have within our lives. God is good and worthy of all our praises! Isaiah gives us a song of praise in Isaiah chapter 12. As I look at various verses of thanksgiving this month, this chapter is the key of what our hearts’ attitude must be before Almighty God.
“Give thanks to the 
let us utter songs of joy and praise to Him all month long. Let the spirit of thanksgiving towards God permeate your very being, dip into that well of salvation, and live out praise and thanksgiving towards God and all the people you meet.
Fearless Living 