If...

              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)

          This is the verse that came up on Bible Gateway.com. I’m sure I’ve used it fairly recently, but since I lack another idea at the moment, we return to it. If you read the rest of the chapter, you’ll find that this is part of what God tells Solomon at the dedication of the temple. It’s His promise about what would happen when the people wandered from God, and were exiled or otherwise disciplined.

          When we read this, we’re tempted to nod. Yes, that’s the way things are now. Look how horrible our nation is getting. But God’s promise doesn’t have to do with our nation. It has to do with His people, those who are called by His name. He gives us four steps when the going gets rough,

          Humble themselves. He couldn’t start with something easy. He had to start with something essential. I’ve struggled with this all my life, and probably, you have, too. I take my requests to God when things aren’t going well, when I want something, when I am not satisfied. I don’t ask Him what He thinks. I tell Him what I think. True, I ask Him, tell Him, and sometimes even beg Him to work in accordance with His will, but I’m still praying about what I want: my fears, my hurts, my struggles, my failures (real and imagined), my feelings. I pray about what I’m doing, and what He wants me to do.

          If we are going to be humble, we’ve got to get our eyes off ourselves. I’ve seen memes that talk about our not becoming a great nation again until we turn back to God. See the problem in that idea? It’s not about our turning back to God, it’s about using God and trying to manipulate Him into making America great again. We should be turning back to God regardless of what happens to our nation.

          Pray. Truth told, this one isn’t easy, either. Life is too busy. Who has time to talk to God, except those quick, “Help!” prayers, unless something horrible has happened. There was a time when I prayed for hundreds of people a day, by name, location, or position. Admittedly, the prayers were simple and quick. I’m not sure they even counted as prayer – but now my mind seems to wander off. And, as I’ve noted before, while these prayers are pretty safe, there are safer, more generic, less risky prayers, and they seem to fill the time I have available. But when the going gets rough, that’s often when we start praying more, when we even risk taking a risk in prayer.

          Seek My face. This goes along with what’s already been said. It’s easy, or easier, to seek His hand. We want Him to do for us. But what He tells us here is that we need to see Him, Him alone, for Himself and not for any side benefit.

          Turn from their wicked ways. This is like humbling ourselves. Wicked ways? What wicked ways? We just want the glory we once had. We just want to be wealthy enough, whatever that means. We just want to be happy on our own terms. What’s so wicked about that? Perhaps what’s wicked about them is the fact that each one of them makes us more of a god, and God more of our slave.

          When the going gets rough, once again, we need to turn away from what comes naturally, and we need to give up ourselves, our images, our dreams of glory – and seek God.