Sunday Ruminations

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV

My wife has been “encouraging” me to get back into blogging for quite some time now. Last week, she requested a verse from me and then a short blurb, which she typed. This week, I’m not so fortunate (I have to type it myself).

This verse was something of a theme at our church in 2007. It has been called the “Prayer of Revival”. It has 4 components, all of which are essential for a right relationship with God, whether you are a seeker or an old hand at Christianity:

1. Humble yourself - Pride is the oldest sin. It is the the sin that felled Satan, the most powerful angel in heaven of his time. Pride has doomed countless masses of humanity to an eternity in torment because they are too proud to accept the free gift of God in Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross. God abases the proud, but gives grace to the humble. This is the first step in salvation or revival.

2. Pray - This is one of the hardest things for me to do at times, yet as water is to the fish of the sea, so is prayer to the Christian. Prayer, simplistically, is talking to God. Granted, it is a delicate balance of intimate communion with our heavenly “Dad” and reverent homage to the majestic Creator of the universe. It is easy to be too flippant on one hand and too formalistic on the other. No wonder prayer is so hard. But without prayer, one cannot ask God to forgive their sins, tell God that they accept His gift of His only Beloved and Begotten Son, thank Him for this gift, or ask for renewal and revival in their lives.

3. Seek My face - In Matthew 6:33, Jesus commands us to “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. God should be our number one priority. We should seek Him in prayer, through His Word, through worship of Him and fellowship with the saints. If we don’t, then getting forgiveness for our sins really doesn’t do us any good, because we will go right back to our sinfulness as a washed sow to the mud. Same with revival. A revival won’t go 2 feet without the power and direction of God, which we must seek from His hand (yes, we really are beggars, but God is a good God who won’t deny us what is truly needful for us).

4. Turn from your wicked ways - This is good old-fashioned repentance. Salvation was never about purchasing a free pass to Pleasure Island. It’s about the freedom to serve God and walk in righteousness. Think about the things you do that are wrong (and you know they are because your conscience tells you so; if it doesn’t, then God have mercy on you). Have you actually ever tried to quit doing one of them on your own? It’s nearly impossible. Salvation frees you not only from the punishment of sin, but from the power of it; but it is still our responsibility to exercise the freedom, which is why this step is necessary for revival as well.

So there are 4 things we need to do in the process of salvation or revival. Since 7 is a number of perfection in the Bible, the Lord adds 3 things from His end to complete this verse. He promises:

1. To hear from Heaven - God will hear the voice of the penitent, always.

2. Forgive our sins - If we ask for it on the basis the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

3. Heal our land - In Solomon’s time, it meant the land of Israel (and I think also at the last day). In our time, it may be our spirits, our lives, our relationships, our intimacy with God, and sometimes our bodies. To a point, I might apply this to America as well, but I think that it would require a very LARGE revival. Since we have a current president (who calls himself a “born-again Christian”) who has told us that America is not ready to end the atrocity of abortion, my hopes for this happening are very slim. I don’t like to sound negative, but America is not ripe for healing, it’s a disaster waiting for the proper time.

Basically, God is willing to heal us and bless us and take us back (although we have abused Him all of our lives), if only we would acknowledge Him for who He is, see ourselves for who we really are and understand and accept what He has done for us to bring us back to Him.

Take some time to ruminate on this this evening (or morning, as the case may be). There is the gift of eternal life there, there is communion with the heavenly Father there, there is the power of the Almighty God there, and there is restoration and refreshment there. Selah.