Prayer: Trusting the God Who Saves
Prayer — Isaiah 31:1–9
In the first sermon of our new mini-series on prayer, Pastor Matt Maloney takes us to Isaiah 31, where Judah is confronted with the danger of trusting earthly strength rather than the Lord. Faced with the overwhelming threat of Assyria, Judah looked to Egypt for security instead of turning to God. Through this passage, we are challenged to recognise that our neglect of prayer can reveal a deeper problem of misplaced trust. Yet Isaiah also gives us a beautiful picture of God's fierce covenant faithfulness: He is the God who watches over, protects, and saves His people. Ultimately, this points us to the far greater salvation accomplished through Christ, reminding us that prayer is the response of those who have been rescued by grace and who therefore have every reason to trust God rather than anything else.
Prayer: Trusting the God Who Saves
Isaiah 31:1–9
Pastor Matt Maloney begins a new mini-series on prayer by confronting a deceptively simple question: What does our prayer life reveal about where we place our trust?
The Bible contains wonderful promises concerning prayer, but prayer is not merely a Christian discipline to be added to an already busy life. Our approach to prayer exposes something deeper about our relationship with God. When we pray, we acknowledge our dependence upon Him. When we consistently fail to pray, we can reveal that we are looking elsewhere for the security, wisdom, control, and rescue that only God can ultimately provide.
Isaiah 31 gives us a powerful Old Testament picture of this problem.
1. Judah looked for salvation in the wrong place
The historical setting is one of crisis. Assyria was the great military power of the region, and its armies threatened Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen, and Judah was now faced with the terrifying prospect of Assyria turning its attention fully toward Jerusalem.
Rather than trusting the Lord, Judah sought security through an alliance with Egypt.
Isaiah begins:
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help…”
The issue was not simply that Judah had made a poor political calculation. Their political decision revealed a spiritual problem. They had placed their confidence in horses, chariots, and military strength rather than in the Lord.
They were behaving like the surrounding nations.
This is important because Judah already knew who God was. The Lord had rescued Israel from Egypt, established His covenant with them, and repeatedly demonstrated His faithfulness. They had every reason to trust Him.
Yet when crisis came, their instinct was not to seek God but to seek another source of security.
That exposes something uncomfortable about the human heart: we can know about God while functionally trusting something else.
2. The absence of prayer can reveal misplaced faith
This is where the passage speaks powerfully into the Christian life.
We can easily become people who pray only after every other option has been exhausted. We worry, strategise, seek advice, attempt to control circumstances, and turn to earthly resources—and only then remember to pray.
Prayer becomes the final resort rather than the first response.
But Isaiah forces us to ask why.
If prayer is fundamentally an expression of dependence upon God, then persistent prayerlessness may reveal that we do not actually believe God is sufficient for the situation before us.
The problem is therefore deeper than simply having a poor prayer routine. Prayerlessness can expose misplaced faith.
Just as Judah's alliance with Egypt revealed where they had placed their confidence, our functional dependence upon money, relationships, competence, possessions, planning, status, or our own ability to control circumstances can reveal where our hearts are really looking for salvation.
The question is not whether we trust something. We always trust something.
The question is: Who or what are we trusting?
3. God's covenant faithfulness makes their unbelief all the more serious
Judah's failure is particularly tragic because God had already bound Himself to His people through His covenant.
The Lord had rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt. He had brought them into the land and established them as His people. His relationship with Israel was not based upon their ability to save themselves, but upon His gracious covenant commitment.
Consequently, Judah's decision to seek Egypt was not merely foolish—it was an expression of unbelief.
They were acting as though the Lord could not be trusted.
This gives prayer a profoundly theological foundation. We pray because God has first made Himself known to us as the faithful God.
Prayer is therefore not an attempt to persuade a reluctant God to care about us. Nor is it a technique by which we manipulate God into giving us what we want.
Rather, prayer is the response of faith to the God who has already revealed Himself as trustworthy.
The Christian does not approach God hoping that He might become gracious. We approach Him because, in Christ, God has already demonstrated His grace toward us.
4. The remarkable picture of God's protection
The rebuke of Isaiah 31 is accompanied by extraordinary encouragement.
In verse 4, Isaiah compares the Lord to a lion that refuses to surrender its prey. Even when shepherds gather to drive it away, the lion is not frightened.
The image is striking: God is fiercely committed to protecting His people.
Then verse 5 gives another picture:
“Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem…”
The imagery communicates both strength and tenderness. God is not distant or indifferent toward His people. He sees them, watches over them, and acts on their behalf.
There is nothing happening in the lives of God's people that escapes His notice.
This gives us an important corrective to our fears. When we face circumstances that appear overwhelming, our instinct can be to focus entirely upon the size of the problem.
Isaiah redirects our attention to the character of the God who stands over the problem.
The Assyrians were powerful.
But God was greater.
5. “Turn back to him”
The heart of Isaiah's message comes in verses 6–7:
“Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted…”
The call is fundamentally a call to repentance.
Judah must abandon its idols and return to the Lord.
This is important for understanding prayer. The answer to prayerlessness is not simply to become better at performing a religious activity. We need to turn back to God Himself.
Prayer is relational before it is methodological.
The fundamental question is not, “How can I improve my prayer life?” but, “Do I actually believe that God is worthy of my trust?”
As faith turns toward God, prayer follows.
And as we understand more deeply who God is, prayer becomes less of a duty and more of a natural response to His character and grace.
6. God alone is the true Saviour
The final verses of Isaiah 31 promise that Assyria will fall—not because Judah's military alliance succeeds, but because the Lord Himself will intervene.
The salvation of Jerusalem ultimately comes from God.
The wider biblical account records the extraordinary fulfilment of this promise. In Isaiah 37 and 2 Kings 19, the Lord strikes the Assyrian army, with 185,000 Assyrian soldiers falling in one night. Sennacherib subsequently returns to Nineveh and is killed by his own sons.
The point is not merely that God can win military battles.
The point is that God is the Saviour of His people.
Judah did not need Egypt to accomplish what only God could do.
7. The gospel reveals an even greater salvation
This is where the passage ultimately points beyond Judah's immediate circumstances.
The rescue of Jerusalem from Assyria was extraordinary, but it pales in comparison with the salvation God has accomplished for His people in Jesus Christ.
Assyria threatened Judah with death.
But sin brought humanity under the judgment of God.
Judah needed deliverance from an earthly enemy.
We need deliverance from sin, death, and the righteous judgment we deserve.
And God Himself has provided that salvation through Christ.
The gospel therefore gives Christians the deepest possible reason to pray.
We do not pray in order to persuade God to save us.
We pray because God has already saved us by grace.
At the cross, God accomplished what no earthly power could accomplish. Christ defeated sin and death and brought His people into the kingdom of God.
If God has done this for us, why would we ultimately trust anything else?
8. Prayer as the response to the gospel
This provides a helpful way of understanding Christian prayer.
Prayer is an act of faith because it says:
“God, I cannot save myself. I cannot control this situation. I cannot see the future. But I know who You are, and I trust You.”
Prayer is therefore deeply connected to the gospel.
The gospel tells us that we are dependent upon grace.
Prayer is the lived expression of that dependence.
The gospel tells us that God has acted decisively for His people.
Prayer responds by trusting Him.
The gospel tells us that we have been brought near to God through Christ.
Prayer enjoys that access.
And the gospel tells us that our ultimate hope is not found in earthly powers but in God Himself.
Prayer therefore turns our hearts away from the false saviours we instinctively run toward and back toward the true Saviour.
9. A searching question for Christians
Isaiah 31 therefore confronts us with a searching question:
When life becomes difficult, where do we instinctively run?
Do we run first to our own abilities?
To money?
To relationships?
To experts?
To planning?
To distraction?
To control?
Or do we turn to the Lord?
Our prayerlessness may reveal more about our theology than we realise.
If we genuinely believe that God is sovereign, wise, good, faithful, powerful, and committed to His people, then prayer makes sense.
If we genuinely believe the gospel—that God has given His Son to save sinners—then we have every reason to approach Him with confidence.
Prayer does not begin with our ability to pray well.
It begins with God's character and God's grace.
Conclusion
Isaiah 31 calls God's people away from false saviours and back to the Lord.
Judah looked to Egypt because Egypt appeared tangible, powerful, and immediately useful. Yet God reminds them that their true security was never found in horses, chariots, alliances, or military strength. Their salvation rested in Him.
The same temptation remains for Christians today. We can profess faith in God while practically living as though everything depends upon us or upon the earthly things around us.
Prayer confronts that illusion.
Every time we pray, we acknowledge that God is God and we are not. We confess our dependence, receive His provision, seek His wisdom, and entrust ourselves to His sovereign care.
And the greatest reason we can pray is not that we have become worthy of God's attention, but that God has graciously brought us near through Christ.
The God who protected Jerusalem from Assyria is the God who, in Christ, has accomplished the infinitely greater work of rescuing His people from sin and death.
So the call of Isaiah 31 is ultimately a gospel call:
Turn from false saviours. Turn to the Lord. Trust the God who saves. And let prayer become the response of a heart that knows it has been rescued by grace.