If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2Chronicles 7:14
I shared last time that God gave the above instructions to Solomon in good times before the Israelites were in trouble. The Lord knew that Israelites will need healing for their nation at some point in time! According to above scripture, God asked people to do three things: humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways. The first two were the subject of the last devotional. The third part of the instruction is the subject of this devotional.
3. Turn from their wicked ways
With the presidential elections so close, there has been a new level of interest in prayer, and this scripture gets quoted as an encouragement to pray for our nation. The scripture calls us to humble ourselves and pray, but we forget the portion that tells us to turn away from our wicked ways, in order for God to forgive us and heal our land.
Why does our nation need healing? Somewhere along the line, we have changed direction and have moved towards deliberate sin. This causes all sorts of ailments for society that leads to distrust and breakdown of relationships at every segment of society. If we want God to heal our land, then our part is to reflect at a personal, church, and national level and see if there is any wicked way in us. The posture of humility and prayer opens the door for the Lord to show us the areas that need repentance and change.
You may say,” I am a pretty good Christian, and I don’t have any wicked ways in me.” Then here are a couple questions that might help: Are there areas in our society that you think the system is broken and needs improvement? If yes, have you been a contributor to the problem by your words, attitude, and activities? Is there anything you can do to help and/or bring about a change in that area? Sometimes wickedness is overt. At others times, it is due to passivity when we allow wickedness to go on.
The above scripture is about taking personal responsibility, repenting, and asking Him to heal our land. We cannot repent for other people. However, we can repent for our part and then intercede for our nation.
In the Old Testament, there were many times that the nation of Israel fell into the cycle of sin. However, they would eventually repent and reset their focus back on God. As people of God, we reset our focus by humbling ourselves, praying and turning from our wicked ways, in order for God to intervene and show His mercy by healing our land.
