If you are Christian, you’ve probably heard this a lot.
It’s from 2 Chronicles 7:14. It’s a great verse and very timely for what’s going on around our country. There’s actually more to it than if we just pray, God will heal our land. Yes, praying is what we need to do, and more of it! Let’s look deeper into the verse.
“…if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
Yes, it is saying, “If My people … pray… I will … heal their land.”
It is often overlooked that the verse also says, “humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then…” So not only does it say that we are to pray but it also says that we, as a nation are to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways. THEN God will hear, forgive and heal. It’s easy to overlook the humble part and the turn from our wicked ways part because that would require more from us. Maybe even more than we are willing to give to God. Ok, we can pat ourselves on the back for praying because we did more than we usually do but then we go on with our lives not applying the rest of the verse. And that’s not to say that we are necessarily practicing wicked ways but we all do have some sin in our life that we need to confess - whether it be gossip, or white lies, or bitterness. What it’s talking about here is a nation’s sin. Sin that the nation is either doing, accepting or condoning as a whole. An example would be abortion. Even some Christians are pro-choice, which is basically, pro-abortion. It is wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Abortion intentionally kills innocent human beings therefore abortion is wrong. God does not support abortion, neither should we. Even if you do not support abortion, our nation is pushing abortion even to the point of birth as well as after birth in some cases. California’s Proposition 1 allows abortions at any time of the pregnancy without limitation for any reason at any time up to the moment of birth—even when the mother's life is not in danger, even when the healthy baby could survive outside the womb! In addition, they are expecting the taxpayers to pay for all of this.
This article did not start out to be about abortion, but I guess that’s where God intended for it to go. It is our biggest sin as a nation. Proverbs 31:8 says that we are to open our mouths (speak out) for those who cannot speak and for the rights of all who are destitute. Well if that doesn’t plainly tell us that we should be doing something.
And then in verse 9, it says that we are to open our mouths for the poor and needy and to judge or treat them righteously.
Going back to the original intent of this article, how are we as Christians addressing the sin of our nation?
Are we ignoring the sin altogether? Are we comfortable in our life so that we don’t want to step out in truth? And praying about this is a great part of the solution but let’s ask God what He would like us to do. What is His will for us. Then, step out in faith - even though it is very scary, and do God’s will. There will be push back. Our nation has gotten so far off of Biblical values that if we point things out, we will be attacked at least verbally for it. Acts 5:29 says “… We ought to obey God rather than men”.
I’m not telling you what you should do, I’m telling you that you should seek God’s face to know what you can do. Sometimes it might just be bringing up the conversation with friends and sharing how you feel about an issue. It never is about doing violence or destruction to properties. It’s always about sharing the truth in love. We need to live by God’s standards and live a life that is pleasing to God. Our nation has done well in the past (even though sins have been committed) because we were based on and in general followed Biblical principles. I think now that our sin may be more often than our following Biblical principles.
So, what is God calling you to do? Pray, seek His face, ask for forgiveness for your own sin and ask God what He would have you do to point others to Him. I believe our nation has the possibility of doing well again. If we pray for our nation and our nation turns from its sin, God will heal the land.