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
God spoke to Solomon and gave him the above instructions following the temple dedication ceremony. It took years for Solomon to build the temple, which was followed by a dedication service that lasted seven days. The nation of Israel was doing well in that moment, but God knew that the seasons of sin and disobedience will come! Therefore, He gave them the above instructions for those seasons!
The Lord gave the people three instructions:
To humble themselves
It is hard to be open to hear God’s instruction or be willing to make adjustment unless we are willing to humble ourselves.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
Regardless of our personal or national success, we must remember that the Lord is the giver of all good things. We can do nothing apart from God giving us the strength, the means, and the right circumstances to help us make progress.
To pray
There is a prayer famine in the land. We are a society who does more and prays less. This is true personally and nationally. At the personal level, we are on the move all the time, so our prayers are drive thru type of prayers, or we are praying while we are doing something else. We generally pray when we need something, or we have something to say to God. How often do we just listen to what God may say in return? What would be the quality of our relationships with our loved ones if that was our regular form of communication with them?
At the church level, we have many programs, but prayer is lacking. If there is a prayer ministry, only a few old people attend it because everyone else is too busy to attend prayer meetings!At the national level, our leaders and presidents who claim to be Christians, don’t mention the name of God in fear of offending people.Our Founding Fathers had no reservation to talk about their faith or write lengthy prayers for our nation, but that is not the case anymore. The leaders use the name of God only in times of tragedy or when concluding lengthy speeches by stating, “God bless America”! Is that all it takes for our nation to be blessed by God!? Was He just waiting for us to include Him at the end of a speech to show the world that we have not forgotten about Him? Why have we believed the lie that people are offended by mentioning the name of God? Has democracy made the concept of popular sovereignty more important than divine sovereignty!? Do we really believe that we can have true governmental freedom apart from the author of freedom!?
I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.
