Skip to main content

Seeking His Face

             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 for today because as I was walking and praying this morning, I couldn’t quote it. I’ve quoted it many times, but this morning, I was losing parts – and not always the same parts! Since the recent topics have been seeking God and building community, this verse is at least one of the keys.

            The problem is that this verse has been the basis for lots of commentaries, including mine. It’s easy to be tempted to skim over it. “Yeah…yeah…read that all before.”  But let’s try.

            If My people, who are called by my name. That’s Christians. That could be (according to their own thinking) the Jews or the Muslims, but it’s assuredly Christ-ians.

            Will humble themselves. This is a trouble spot. Some won’t humble themselves. As one of “His people,” they are better than anyone else. Even those who claim to humble themselves, or to submit to God (the meaning of the word, Muslim,) seem to have a lot of pride. In fact, those who pray this promise tend to do so when things aren’t going well, in hopes that God will defeat whoever is “Rome” and establish His eternal kingdom, with the capital where they live. But being humble means being willing for the land to be healed – and poor, powerless, and absolutely dependent on God for everything.

            And pray and seek His face. This is the connection to recent posts. Yes, we can each pray and seek His face separately, and we should, but that’s not the feeling that this verse exudes. To refuse to meet to pray is to refuse an opportunity to pray and seek His face, and that’s what this passage is all about.

            And turn from their wicked ways. There are lots of wicked ways that we need to turn from, but in broad terms, wicked ways are those that separate us from God and from God’s people. They are those ways that lower our standards of love for one another.

          Then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  This is the part that caught my attention this morning. We tend to think of “their land” as the whole country. The wrong people are in charge. If we do all those things, God will put the right people in charge, and everything will be wonderful again.

            But their land can just as easily refer to their state, county, city, neighborhood, or even home. It may even be able to refer to the land between the person’s ears and down into their heart. Again, there’s every reason to pray this passage for the nation, but all the others need the same prayer – and each time God fulfills His promise for a smaller “land,” He is answering for the bigger one, too.

            I need to refresh my mind in terms of the content of this verse, but I also need to be praying it and responding to it, too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more