"Real Change"
At times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you. Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. (2 Chronicles 7:13, 14 NLT)
Solomon has just finished dedicating the temple. He has prayed before the Lord & before the people for God's face to be toward this place. He prays for God to hear the prayers of everyone who prays from here. He prays from his knees with his hands extended toward heaven. This is the best posture a leader could have. We need more people leading from their knees, interceding for God's people.
We are familiar with this passage here in 2 Chr. 7:14. We know that God promises to heal their land if they repent of their sin that caused the destruction in the first place. What stands out here is who God is asking to repent. "If my people...." God is calling out his people. When the land is destroyed because of the disobedience of the people, it is not the responsibility of the godless culture around them to repent. It is not the pagans role to confess their sins, repent, pray, & seek God's face. It is not the lost that God is waiting for to get right so he can heal the land. It's his people!
Many times we think that the problem in our world, culture, & country is lost people. The unsaved that corrupt our world & our values. The world that denies our God & the morality he commands. No doubt these contribute to the overall moral decline of culture. But according to 2 Chr. 7, it's not the culture that must repent in times of severe drought. It's not the lost that God expects to repent so that the land is healed. It's God's people! God calls on the healing of the land to be initiated & take place in the family of God. In other words, the lost culture is not the problem, we are! What if our main issues in our culture & world could be solved if the church got right with God? Is that oversimplifying our issues & dilemmas? Is that too simple?
What if the church got right with God & quit simply playing church? What could God do with a church like that? Reach the nations with the gospel? Establish morality again? Return to a standard of truth & right? Feed the poor? Maybe our world continues it's downward spiral mainly because we refuse to be who God wants us to be as his people.
Maybe real change could happen in our world if real changed happened in our church.
I think we underestimate God's church & what he has ordained it to do. We think, "What could we really do?" What can't we do? Jesus died to purchase us. He gave his life to make us who we are. He gave his life for our mission. If the church is worth the sacrifice of the Son of God, surely God sees value in it for great change & accomplishment for the kingdom! God has given is his Holy Spirit to do the work, all we have to be are vessels.
I sincerely don't want to oversimplify the world's complex problems. I simply want to know, what if? What if we got right with God, got on his agenda & mission, really followed him as Lord, repented of our sins, & he healed our land? What could God do with a bride like that? What if?
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