Skip to main content

Seek 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)

          I know this is old news, but in October, I drove to Florida right after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the territory between Pennsylvania and Florida. Some of the workers who went to help stayed in the hotel I usually stay in. Right after I got to Florida, Hurricane Milton came through, and I returned to Erie with a load of stuff, then went back to Florida to sell the trailer. I got home shortly before “snowmageddon”, when the plow crews couldn’t get secondary roads cleared even once in five days. While FEMA was doing next to nothing except getting in the way in North Carolina, the nation was summoned to step up to help Los Angeles, which suffered under the onslaught of wild-fires. Now, this spring, we’ve had smoke from wildfires in Canada (again) and floods in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas, and the Carolinas. I’m sorry if I missed some. I’m fairly sure there were more natural disasters, including tornadoes.

          The current flooding in Texas is heartbreaking, but so were all the others, or they should have been. And let’s not forget the riots, arson, and violence committed by humans.

          So, today’s passage is a call to war, of a sort. And I’m sure that some people who might read it will say, “Yeah, those people need to humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. But it begins with “if My people” not “if those people.” Some are likely to also complain that if everyone did what “we” told them to, but that’s not what it says either.

          This verse is about Christians doing what Christians are supposed to do. And the associated promise is that God will heal our land – because our doing what we’re supposed to be doing is healing to the land.

          So I’m going to give us a simple challenge. Today, ask God to reveal to you what it means for you to seek His face.

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

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more