On a beautiful morning as this, you are receiving a message from the Lord- "Set your house in order!" How will you respond to this? Will you gather up your strength and start to get the things in order or will you neglect it?

This is a well-known passage we often consider as an answered prayer. Yes, it is a good example of an answered prayer. But we cannot neglect the stark warning given at the start of this chapter. Let us see what happened to this person who received this message.  King Hezekiah after receiving the message, wept and cried out to Lord for mercy and received it in abundance. He was healed by the Lord and also granted another 15 years upon this earth and also God promised to chase out his enemies and keep the kingdom intact. Yes, our God is merciful and kind enough to hear our heart cry for help in times of despair!

Hezekiah got the time required to set his house in order, as much as 15 years. But instead, he opened his storehouses to the enemy camp, for which God sent His warning through Prophet Isaiah. Even though as a king he had tried walking in the ways of the Lord, at the end he stood up to open his treasures to the enemy camp. The wonderful healing and the longevity he had received had not done any good to him instead brought terrible consequences upon his household after his death. He could have used these days to set his house in order as the Lord commanded.  There is no reference seen in the Bible about this person doing so. What a tragedy that affected the kingdom and his household soon after his death. 

As we read through this story today, let us take heed to set our house in order. We do not know about our tomorrows. It can be the Lord’s coming or our end. But we need to set the house in order to stand before the Lord. 

As we know, when Jesus entered the Jerusalem temple and seeing the pathetic state of the Father’s house, immediately set out to clean the house of God. (John 2:14-22). He was very zealous in cleaning up the house and to set things in order. In a similar way, our life should be set in order according to His plan and purpose for our lives. This can only be achieved with the help of Him, who had first set out to cleanse the House of God. 

First of all, be aware that this house of ours belongs to the Lord and all that has been mismanaged due to our inadequacy has to be reinstated. With the help of our beloved Holy Spirit we need to set out to put the things in order, starting with our relationship with the Lord God and then with our brethren. Once this is in order then we need to get the communication right, through prayer and meditation of His Word. In a similar way, God will put all in its intended place and it will become beautiful. He will fill our lives with such an order that there will be a beauty for ashes as we read in Isaiah 61:3:  “...to give to them beauty for ashes, ....”

Prayer:

Dear Father, I want you to help me set my house

in order so that it will be filled with beauty fit for your cohabitation.

Thank you for accepting this humble request.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen