Last year it seemed everywhere I turned or looked, the following verse was appearing:
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 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.
I think we need to look at this verse and break it down a little more. “If my people who are called by My name…” As Christians, we are God’s people, grafted into the family and we call ourselves – Christians meaning “follower of Christ.” Therefore, we recognize that this verse is speaking to all believers. Not just the Jews, but also those of us who are adopted into the Kingdom through our faith and belief in Jesus Christ.
The next part of the verse seems pretty harmless, “will humble themselves and pray and seek my face…” Here is where we may start getting in trouble, the praying part is pretty straightforward. It is our communicating with God. Yet the second part, “humbling ourselves” is not something that we do easily. Having humility. Having a servant’s heart. Recognizing we are not better than anyone else and therefore we are so much more in need of what Christ has offered us with the fruits of the spirit. [Gentleness, goodness, joy, kindness, long-suffering, love, peace and self control.] We need to not only pray, but humble ourselves and seek (crave, require as a necessity) God’s face.
Finally, “and turn from their wicked ways..” What? His people, called by His name, have wicked ways? Yes, we are all sinners and have fallen short. When we accept Christ, we still have to take action to change the things that we continue to do that go against God’s word. Perhaps, that is why the Bible tells us we are to ‘meditate on His word day and night’ Joshua 1:8 and to ‘study to show yourself approved’ 2 Timothy 2:15. Christ gives us examples of how we are to walk: not only that, but He led by example.
Finally, if we do all these things, then He “will hear from heaven and forgive our sins and heal our land”. This is pretty straightforward, and is often where we leave it. However, we need to continue on with the scripture a bit because what follows is just as important. It is what happens if we don’t do what is in verse 14.
19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
21 “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’” 2 Chronicles 7:19-22
We receive the promise of our land being healed when we humble ourselves, pray and seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways. The bible doesn’t leave it there. It tells us the price if we don’t. I will bottom line it for you: He will allow calamity to fall, He will let our lands become uprooted and we will see more idol worship, more destruction, more of what we are seeing in the world around us affecting our daily lives.
People like to “blame God” for what is going on. Yet, the Word tells us that there is a consequence for not doing what He asks of us. How many times did one man have to stand in the gap when God’s people rebelled against His word? The Israelites didn’t wander in the desert for 40 years because they obeyed the Lord’s commandments. They wandered because of their “stiff-necked” ways, disobedience against what God told them to do. This is a theme that is repeated throughout history.
If we want to change the direction of our lives and our country, then we need to stand in the gap, humble ourselves and pray, turn from our wicked ways, seek God’s face and THEN He will heal our land. Do you want things to change? Go before God, seek Him with a humble heart, and ask Him to show you where you need to improve. Ask Him to watch over and bless our country and show you how to be an active part in the transformation. Now, more than ever, the world needs Jesus.