Day 187: Praying for Time

2 Kings 21:1-26 Manasseh reintroduced paganism by means of the worship of Baal to Judah, thereby defiling the Temple. He erected new altars and asherahs and offered his son as a human sacrifice. With these egregious sins, he brought the wrath of God upon Judah.


2 Chronicles 32:1-32 Hezekiah dealt wisely with the Assyrian threat of invasion, trusting in the Lord and turning to him in prayer. In response, an angel of God forced the Assyrians to return home. Later, when he was cured of an illness, he failed to offer thanksgiving to the Lord, but soon repented of his pride. During his reign he enjoyed prosperity and success in all his projects for the people of Judah and is still considered one of the greatest Kings of Judah.


Psalm 145 This hymn is a litany of praise for God’s many interventions in forming, guiding, and protecting his people throughout the course of history. God’s vision for all people is to form a kingdom of grace, mercy, justice, and love rather than of power and domination. Therefore, with respect to this psalm, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the phrases referring to God’s perfections that include the description as “good to all” and having compassion “over all that he has made.” His works of creation are magnificent, but his most salient attribute is his boundless mercy toward us.


The Lord is near...truth: The second part of this psalm bears this striking line. As long as we are disposed to fulfill God’s will, we can have the firm conviction that he will respond to our prayer. (Cf. Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, February 1 and 8, 2006)


His greatness is unsearchable: The human mind, being finite, can never comprehend fully the infinite wisdom and power of God. God can be known indirectly by the magnificence and grandeur of his creation. Omnipotence and absolute perfections are concepts we can only grasp faintly by analogy.


The Lord is good...he has made: God created freely a rich array of both living and inanimate things that reflect in a very finite way his wisdom, intelligence, and goodness. He shares his goodness in a spectacular way by making the human person in his image and likeness. (CCC 295, 300, 342)

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)


  • Looks like even priests can make “dad jokes” 🤪

  • Minor prophets are called that because they work underground and mine iron ore and copper ore…….🤨

  • They are ACTUALLY called MINOR PROPHETS because their writings were SHORTER than the MAJOR PROPHETS (pretty sure we learned this before 😉)


  • Gosh, you guys!

  • Hezekiah dies in 2 Kings Ch 20

  • BUT…

  • In 2 Chronicles Ch 32 he is still alive until the end

  • And so we are going to flash forward into...or we kept drifting...eh..flashing...I don’t know….we are moving forward in time to Manasseh (I thought it would be fun to transcribe Fr. Mike’s stream-of-consciousness way of speaking just to see it in black and white 🤣)

  • And then in 2 Chronicles we get to go back and kind of recap

  • Here is Hezekiah’s life with a couple of extra details

  • In 2 Kings Ch 21 it says Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 55 years in Jerusalem and he did what was EVIL in the sight of the Lord

  • He is literally ONE OF THE WORST KINGS

  • REMEMBER THIS

  • Hezekiah’s DAD was AHAZ, one of the WORST KINGS

  • Hezekiah’s SON was MANASSEH, one of the WORST KINGS

  • Which is REALLY REMARKABLE

  • It goes to show that one of the things we can say as Christians is that GOD DOES NOT HAVE ANY GRANDKIDS

  • We are either SONS OR DAUGHTERS of God

  • We are either CHILDREN OF GOD

  • OR NOT

  • We can’t just say, “Well the faith of my parents lives on in me…”

  • NO!!!

  • It has to be YOUR faith now!!

  • Manasseh REBUILT all those idols and temples to false gods

  • Not only that, he brought REALLY HORRIBLE THINGS into the Temple of the Lord

  • This begins the downward spiral of the People of Israel (I think maybe Fr. Mike meant to say the People of Judah because Manasseh was King of Judah and the Northern Kingdom at this point was already EXILED to Assyria...don’t quote me on this, however. Maybe Fr. Mike meant the downward spiral for ALL OF GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE? 🤔🤔🤔 🤷🏾‍♂️)

  • They have TURNED THEIR BACK on the Lord

  • We are going to hear from all of the PROPHETS in the next couple of days

  • We heard from AMOS

  • We heard from MICAH

  • We heard from JONAH

  • Now that we have learned a bit more about Assyria, can you see how JONAH was a bit reluctant to go to Assyria, to go to Nineveh, to preach to the Ninevites?

  • Assyria was AWFUL to Samaria in the NORTH

  • Assyria was AWFUL to Judah in the SOUTH

  • Manasseh is being FALSE TO THE LORD

  • Let’s highlight 2 Kings 21:1, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign…”

  • That means he was born 12 years BEFORE HEZEKIAH DIED

  • Remember that Hezekiah was on his DEATHBED

  • The Lord answered his prayer and HEALED HIM and gave him an extra 15 years of life

  • So Manasseh, one of the worst kings in Judah’s history, WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN BORN had Hezekiah NOT PRAYED FOR A LONGER LIFE!!! 🤯🤯🤯

  • It’s worth paying attention to this

  • The last 15 years of Hezekiah’s life was also the time when the Babylonians came to visit

  • That was when Hezekiah showed the Babylonians all their secrets in Judah

  • Hezekiah basically BRAGGED about HIS house, HIS storehouses, HIS riches, HIS treasures

  • So those last 15 YEARS Hezekiah basically said at the end, “The Word of the Lord you have spoken is good. But at least there is peace and security in MY DAYS.”

  • Those EXTRA 15 YEARS in Hezekiah’s life DID NOT MAKE HIM A BETTER PERSON

  • Those EXTRA 15 YEARS in Hezekiah’s life DID NOT MAKE HIM A HOLIER PERSON

  • This is one of the things for US

  • Of course, we pray for healing for ourselves and healing for the people that we love

  • We talked a little bit about this yesterday when Hezekiah was healed

  • BUT…

  • There is also great wisdom in God when we are able to say, “Lord, if I am healed then let me be a holier person for having been healed, rather than, like Hezekiah, a worse person.”

  • Hezekiah was a GREAT GREAT KING

  • BUT…

  • He did not use those LAST 15 YEARS to become GREATER

  • He did not use those LAST 15 YEARS to become GREATER IN THE EYES OF THE LORD

  • IN FACT, he took more PRIDE upon himself

  • 2 Chronicles Ch 32 says that there was a great pride that was in his heart

  • St. Dominic Savio was just a boy when he died

  • One of his mottos even as a child was, “It would be better to die than to commit a mortal sin.”

  • We think that it’s tragic that this St. Dominic Savio died when he was 13 or 14

  • Whenever ANYONE dies, it can be incredibly TRAGIC

  • BUT…

  • His MOTTO that “I would rather die than commit a mortal sin,” IS SPOT ON

  • Here is Hezekiah who pleaded with the Lord for EXTRA TIME

  • BUT…

  • He did not use that EXTRA TIME to become BETTER

  • We are going to keep praying for each other

  • Many people listening to this Bible in a Year have sickness, illness, and wounds in the heart, body, and mind

  • We are PRAYING for healing of that

  • ABSOLUTELY!!

  • We are praying for YOU!!

  • Please, pray for each other FOR THAT HEALING

  • BUT…

  • Even more importantly, we need to pray that God uses this time, whatever time we have been given, that God HELPS us to use this time TO BECOME BETTER

  • TO BECOME MORE AND MORE DEEPLY ROOTED AS HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS

  • Because we don’t know how much time we are going to get

  • If God gives us EXTRA TIME, “Then yes, God. Please help me to use that to become a holier person, a better person, someone more like your Son Jesus.”

  • BUT…

  • “If you are not going to give extra time, Lord, then let me use the time that I have to become more like your Son, Jesus.”

  • BECAUSE THAT IS IT

  • Whether it is a SHORT amount of time

  • Whether it is a LONG amount of time

  • The point of that TIME is to be FULLY CONVERTED to The Lord

  • To become the SAINT that God has MADE us to be

  • To become the SAINT that God has REDEEMED us to be

  • To become an image of Jesus Christ IN THIS WORLD

  • So let’s PRAY for that!!

  • Whatever time we have been GIVEN

  • Whatever time we have LEFT

  • Pray that God uses it to make us BETTER

  • Pray that God uses it to make us MORE LIKE HIM

  • PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

  • PRAY FOR FR. MIKE


Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we thank you so much. Gosh, Lord. I just ask you please this day on day 187, I just ask you please to receive our praise once again because we can never tire of praising you, blessing you, giving glory to your Holy Name. So, Lord God, please receive our praise. Receive our thanks today. Help us to use our lives well. Help us to use whatever time you give us in this life well and wisely. Lord God, let not one of our days not help to make us better people, more faithful to you, more repentant of our sins, and more virtuous in your grace and your power and your strength. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”