Readings for today: 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 Chronicles 7:14)
If there was ever a verse that spoke directly to our cultural moment, it would be this one. In this passage God is speaking directly to His people. He is telling them that in times of national hardship. When the rains don’t come and there is drought. When the locusts swarm and there is famine. When disease strikes and there is death. One could further add, when there is warfare and conflict leading to death and destruction. When natural disasters hit and there is suffering. When pandemics arrive on your shores. Racial tensions stirred from within. Violent community uprisings. Economic disasters. Shelter-in-place orders that seem arbitrary and capricious. Fears of government takeovers or police brutality. When these things happen, the most important thing God’s people can do is turn to Him.
It begins with humility. We humble ourselves before His face. We lay aside all our pride. All our arrogance. All our thoughts, opinions, and ideas on what’s gone wrong and why. We take all the solutions we come up with and cast them at His feet. We acknowledge our weakness. We acknowledge our foolishness. We acknowledge the simple fact that we are sinners and therefore have this tendency to corrupt everything we create or touch. We confess our natural inclination to make everything about us. Our natural instinct for self-promotion. Self-preservation. Self-indulgence. We come before God with open hands, recognizing there is nothing we bring to the table when we are in His presence except our sinful, broken selves.
Second, we pray and seek God’s face. We come not to offer God our wisdom, our solutions, our thoughts or ideas. We come seeking His face. We come seeking His wisdom. We come seeking His ways. We come with a willingness to obey. A willingness to walk the road He lays out for us. We come seeking His Kingdom, not our own. We come seeking His will, not our own. We come seeking His favor and His grace because we know our resources are all tapped out. This is what it means to pray in faith. We pray trusting God knows what’s best. We pray believing God has what’s best in mind for us. We pray with the sure and certain knowledge that God loves us and longs to save us.
Finally, we turn from our wicked ways. We repent. We actually make changes in our life. We actively seek to align our hearts with God’s heart. Our ways with God’s way. Our thoughts with God’s thoughts. We intentionally seek to become more like Jesus. The perfect and beloved Son of God. The One who relinquished all His rights and privileges in order to reach down to save us. The One who traversed the heavens to come to earth to rescue us. The One who gave everything up in order to deliver us from sin and death.
Friends, I know we are living through challenging times. I know 2020 feels like a year we could all just forget and drop in the ocean. But I also know it is times like these where God’s people often do their best work. As we humble ourselves. As we pray. As we repent. As we cry out God, the Holy Spirit goes to work in our hearts and minds transforming us more into the image of Christ. Embrace the work, my friends! And trust God with the results!
Readings for tomorrow: Psalms 146-150