Readings for the day: 2 Chronicles 4-7, Psalms 134, 136
“If my people who are called by my name 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.” (2 Chron. 7:14)
Do you pray for revival? Revival in God’s Church? Revival in our nation? Revival in your own heart? For years now, this verse from 2 Chronicles has been lifted up as the model prayer for revival. We look around at our culture today. We look around our nation today. All we see are divisions. The flourishing of hate. Racism rearing its ugly head. Sexual assault and abuse. Violence against women and children. Polarization leading to dehumanization and the demonizing of those who might disagree with us. It’s painful and heartbreaking to see. Some blame social media. I do not. I believe social media has merely brought transparency to the pervasive evil that was already present.
In the face of all the sin and evil and suffering in our nation, the evangelical church took up this prayer from 2 Chronicles 7:14. We begged God to forgive our sin and heal our land. We begged God for revival and a fresh movement of the Holy Spirit. We begged God for transformation and spiritual renewal. But revival has not come. Our nation continues its plunge into darkness and chaos. So what happened? Did God fail to fulfill His promise? Did He NOT hear from heaven? Why hasn’t healing come?
I believe its because we’ve played the Pharisee. As much as we desired God’s forgiveness and healing, we refused to humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our own wicked ways. Evangelical leaders are failing morally in shocking numbers. Sexual temptation. Greed. Power. Influence. Fame. Fortune. Pastors purchasing private jets. Living in multi-million dollar homes. Sacrificing their commitment to Christ for political influence. Engaging in inappropriate relationships and adulterous affairs. Focusing more on building their brand than the Kingdom of God. It is brutal. Shocking. Heartbreaking. Hypocritical. We arrogantly assume we can police the moral behavior, thoughts, and attitudes of the general public while at the same time refusing to repent of our own sin. On this point, Jesus is 100% clear. We must take the log out of our own eye before we dare to point out the speck in someone else’s eye. The harsh reality is we have lost all credibility.
So what do we do? We humble ourselves. Before the Lord. Before each other. Before the world. We are broken people. We are sinful people. We have no right to claim any moral high ground. We pray. We ask God to continue His sanctifying work in us. We beg the Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear and hearts to understand the mind of Christ. We seek God’s face. We stop believing the world revolves around us. We stop treating God like some on-call, cosmic concierge whose only purpose for existence is to meet our emotional needs. We stop treating worship like a consumer product and instead give God the worship He deserves in the way He demands. And finally, we turn from our wicked ways. We come clean. We confess. We repent. We make ourselves vulnerable and transparent before God, before each other, and before the world. Most importantly, we do these things authentically with no other agenda than to come clean before our Heavenly Father.
Jesus once said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33) Too often we flip things around. Put the cart before the horse. Try to harness God’s Kingdom to advance our own agendas - personal, social, or political. God will have none of it! He will not share His glory! He will not share the limelight! He will not share the credit! He alone is worthy! He alone is Savior! He alone is Lord! He doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need our wealth. He doesn’t need our resources. He doesn’t need our knowledge or talent or ability. He doesn’t need our country. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Empires rise and fall before Him. He knows the name of each of the billion trillion stars in the heavens. And yes, He hears our prayers. Yes, He will forgive our sin. Yes, He will heal our land. But only if we first relinquish our vain and selfish pride.