“In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, 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. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ”” – 2 Kings 20:1-6 NIV

Hezekiah made a bold request of God to reverse a life threatening death sentence from a prophet for an illness that was clearly deadly. God honored Hezekiah’s request and fulfills his prayer and added 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. This story demonstrates our ability to bring bold and difficult requests before God with the possibility of them being fulfilled. God will listen to us and hear our requests. However we need to always be certain that they aren’t sinful because God hates sin and God will not listen to those requests if they are based in sin and we need to check to make sure our motives are always right. Check out James 4:3:

“When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” – James 4:3 NIV

We won’t get what we ask for specifically because we asked for the wrong reasons. So yes we can make bold requests like Hezekiah, but we need to be certain our intent is pure.