When you come to the Lord in prayer, asking for His help for yourself, or while interceding for others, you might find encouragement by studying how the good king Jehoshaphat interceded to God during a desperate moment in his kingship over Judah (in 2 Chron 20). Read about this in an earlier related post: BAHALA KA NA LORD.
In this post, I will break down Jehoshaphat’s prayer (which I call the “Bahala ka na, Lord” prayer) and describe a simple pattern which hopefully you will find easy to emulate, and which will encourage you to pray with joy and peace in your heart, knowing that the God of Jehoshaphat is honored as you come to Him for help.
The Six Parts of the BKNL Prayer
There are actually six simple but vital parts of Jehoshaphat’s Bahala Ka Na, Lord prayer. It is the combination and the sequence of these statements that make this prayer a complete “formulation” of a prayer that honors a trustworthy God to come to our aid.
First, Jehoshaphat DECLARES WHO GOD IS (v6: Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you). Declaring who you believe God to be is a great way to begin a prayer of petition. You honor Him by recognizing and declaring who He is whom you approach for help. Among the many qualities of God it is best to choose one which is suitable to the particular petition that you have in mind.
Next, Jehoshaphat RECALLS WHAT GOD HAS DONE in the past. This remembrance validated his declaration of who He believed God is. (v7: Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?) There is so much power in remembering who God is and what He has done. Even God Himself instructed the Israelites to always recall His mighty deeds. The bible is full of stories of the mighty hand of a King, and the generosity of a loving Father, and the gracious mercy of a suffering Messiah.
Thirdly, Jehoshaphat CITES A PROMISE THAT GOD HAD MADE to His people in the past, and basically implying that he (Jehoshaphat) now wants to lay claim on this promise, knowing that God is true to His promises. (v8-9: They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’) Again, a biblical verse that captures an appropriate promise has great power if recalled in this petition. God is faithful to His promises, and He is honored by those who remember His word and trust Him to keep His word.
Before proceeding further
Note that up to this point in his prayer, Jehoshaphat has not yet stated his problem to God. He is not consumed by his problem when he approaches God. He has taken care to guard his heart by bringing to his own mind and heart how great God is, how powerful He is, and how much God cares for His children and His own.
This pattern of prayer does two things. First, even in his prayer for help, Jehoshaphat gives great honor to God. Secondly, and equally important, it reminds Jehoshaphat how great God is compared to his own problem.
If we were to pray in this way, as we recall these three things about God (a loving God who has shown by His own powerful actions and His infallible word how much He cares for His children), we put to size our problem in comparison to the greatness of God. It is therefore most likely that all that fear and anxiety and doubt that Jehoshaphat might have been carrying as he approaches the Lord, will disappear.
A further point has to be brought up. Obviously, if you are not quite knowledgable about who God is, or if you are not familiar with the promises that He has made to His children, or if you are not mindful of what He has done in the past (whether in your life, or in other people’s lives, or even the stories found in scripture), then it is no wonder that your problems will overwhelm you and your approach to “God” (whoever he is) is desperate, to say the least, or insincere and filled with doubt, at worst. It’s not that God will not hear you anyway. But it leaves plenty of room in your heart for Satan to occupy. But you are not without hope, if you (of little faith) seek help from a believer to intercede for you.
Conversely, if you are a believer who has come to know God and His word, this prayer pattern is a good way to minister to and to encourage someone who has come to you for prayers.
Completing the Prayer
Having quelled his anxieties with the first three declarations, now, Jehoshaphat is ready to present His case to God in full trust and confidence. He STATES THE PROBLEM SITUATION. (v10-11: But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.)
Note one very important point of this. Jehoshaphat declares the problem instead of prescribing the solution that he wants. How different is this from our usual prayers to the Lord? Usually, we prescribe what we want God to do. We don’t even state the problem anymore. Please heal my mother. Please let me pass the test. Please divert this storm. Please let me get a good harvest.
What happens when we pray our usual prayer? We presume we know that our solution works best. Maybe we have been tossing around the problem in our minds for many days already, and we have considered many options. And even though we may ask God to do the “impossible”, we really leave little room for God to do His work. How pitiful mankind would be if God did exactly what we told Him to do as solutions to our problems. We would leave out the best that God has in store.
To avoid this, Jehoshaphat does the better thing. He leaves the solution all up to the Lord, and does not insist on his way. He simply states the problem as he sees it.
And so, instead of prescribing the solution, Jehoshaphat DECLARES HIS HELPLESSNESS. (v12: For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do.) A statement of the obvious, perhaps, but an important declaration of your humble and sorry state.
Finally, Jehoshaphat DECLARES HIS TRUST IN GOD. (v12: our eyes are on you.) Bahala ka na, Lord. We can’t do this, but we know You can, and so we look to You to come to our aid.
Try It
Why not try it? I’m sure there is some situation you want to pray for either for yourself or for someone else who has asked for prayers from you. Get a pen and paper, and try to compose a petitionary prayer following Jehoshaphat’s BKNL prayer pattern. Keep your bible handy for reference.
Come before the Lord in reverence, and start composing a simple prayer based on the following pattern:
- Declare who God is, and why you come to Him for help.
- Recall what He has done in the past, perhaps in a situation similar to your current concern.
- State a promise that you know God had made (as validated in scriptures) that is relevant to your prayer concern.
- State your problem (not your prescribed solution).
- State your helplessness.
- Declare your complete trust in God.
It might help if you try this out as an exercise together with your small discipleship group, if you have any. And if anyone ever asks for your prayers, try to use this pattern and then share your prayer with them in order to encourage them especially about what you know to be the truth found in the first three parts of the prayer.
May the mighty King of Zion, the God of Jehoshaphat, come to your aid, and “may the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”.
Rejoice always!!
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