Heal Our Land

 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (II Chronicles 7:14)

          Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,  slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Romans 5:19-21)

          What does a sick land look like? According to this verse, at least at some point, a sick land is one in which the weather is uncooperative. Specifically, God mentions lack of rain, but too much rain, or too hot, or too cold could all serve the same purpose. Another symptom of a sick land is locusts devouring the land. All the work the Israelites put into producing their harvest would be devoured. The third problem mentioned is a plague.  A sick land is one in which no matter how hard we work, things fall apart.

A healthy land would seem to be a land in which the weather is cooperative, the crops are sufficient to the needs of the people, and In other words, it looks like our country. I don’t like the idea of pointing my finger, scowling, and pronouncing in my most authoritative voice, “God is passing judgment on you, you filthy, miserable sinners!”

Fortunately, God provides a prescription for what ails our land. If His people – Christians and Jews – who are called by His name do four things, God will heal the land. Those four things are familiar:

1)    Humble ourselves

2)    Pray

3)    Seek His face

4)    Turn from our wicked ways

Notice that it doesn’t include electing the right person to be president. It doesn’t require we change national, state, or local laws to match Scriptural teaching (as much as I think doing so is a good idea.)

Christians, we need to humble ourselves. That means that we have to stop thinking we can fix the situation by electing the right person or changing laws.  We need to pray. That means we have to seek out the One who can fix things and to seek His face and not give up until we’ve found Him. The last thing we have to do seems to me to be the hardest. We have to turn from our wicked ways.

That means we have to stop doing things we shouldn’t do. We have to stop finding things acceptable that God says are wrong. We need to clean the Church, removing all the things listed in Romans 1 and Galatians 5. These aren’t the things the world needs to stop doing in order for God to heal the land. They are the things we must stop doing. And if something comes to mind that you think God wants you to add to the list – prayerfully add it. It may be a battle for you to give them up, but if we want God to heal our land, we need to stop playing games.