Wholehearted Devotion

2 Kings 20:3
"Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Fast forward ten chapters and however-many kings. Hezekiah was one of the good kings. How good? Just listen: "He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it."
He removed the high places! He even broke up the ancient bronze serpent! In fact, there was no one like him.
Interestingly, there is no mention of a devoted heart. Rather, it was said he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. It was said he held fast to the LORD and did not cease to follow him; he kept the commands the LORD had given Moses.
I don't think there are accidents in the Bible.
In the nineteenth chapter of 2 Kings, God defeated the Assyrians and saved Jerusalem. Right after that, for no reason given, Hezekiah was sick and told by Isaiah that he would die. He didn't want to accept that verdict, so he went to God.
I remember teaching a Sunday school lesson on this. I'm not so sure this is a model prayer, though it worked for him. He reminded God of his own goodness in 3 phrases, one of which is "wholehearted devotion." He claimed for himself what the writer of
2 Kings did not. And he cried. I think it was his passion that won God over. He knew he hadn't given cause for a death sentence, and he didn't mind telling it to God.
I think that is a good lesson. Just tell it to God. Let it come from the heart. Don't accept the worst case. Beg God for the best.
He just might say yes.