Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today I begin with a question for all of us: Which of all God’s promises is the ONE you most cherish? For the past few days we’ve been in Jerusalem, eyewitnesses to the remarkable dedication of the great Temple built by King Solomon. Jerusalem was filled to overflowing with thousands of people who had come to witness this once in a lifetime experience. At the conclusion of Solomon’s prayer of dedication yesterday we witnessed God sending a fireball from heaven to burn up the sacrifices on the altar and the cloud of God’s purifying presence filled the Temple with ‘the glory of the LORD.’ (2 Chronicles 7:1-3) What an amazing experience it was for all who were privileged to be in Jerusalem as eyewitnesses!
Today, let’s continue watching, for 2 Chronicles 7:9 tells us this celebration continued for two weeks! The record says: “On the 23rd day of the seventh month Solomon sent the people to their homes, joyful and glad in heart for the good things the LORD God had done for David and Solomon and for His people Israel.” Think about the last time there was a great festival or celebration in your town or even in the capital of your nation. Did the people finally leave that celebration returning to their homes in the same way these Israelites did? Oh, what a difference it should make when our celebrations are God focused, thanking and praising God for His majesty and His direct involvement in our lives. Do you agree?
King Solomon also returned to his busy life as king over all Israel and then suddenly Solomon had another unexpected encounter with God! The record says: “When Solomon had finished the Temple of the LORD…the LORD appeared to him at night and said: ‘I have heard your prayer and I have chosen this place for Myself as a temple for worship and sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, 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 will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place…” (2 Chronicles 7:11-15)
You recognize that promise from God don’t you, my friends? Did you know God made this promise in response to King Solomon’s prayer in the dedication ceremony of the great Temple in Jerusalem? Did you notice the phrase before God’s famous promise? The phrase that says: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or I command locusts to devour the land or I send a plague among My people…” God was looking down through time both past and future, and God saw how often His people would do as their ancestors had done, turn away from God! It’s what God’s people have done consistently ever since that day. People tend to drift spiritually away from God, have you noticed that? Even while practicing their traditions, their rituals, their festivals and ceremonies, the human heart tends toward selfishness, self-reliance rather than pursuing God. Honestly now, have you seen that in your life, your extended family, your church and your city? And when we drift, God reaches to us like a lifeguard in His love, seeking to draw us back to Him, but God will never force us back, now watch this my friends.
Sometimes that invitation back to God comes in the form of loving encouragement from a friend, or a family member, or a wonderful worship experience or a powerful time of reflection in God’s Word. But other times, God finds our hearts have become hard and He needs to use tactics which may actually be painful to us in order to get our attention and help us realize how far we have drifted away from God.
Remember this pattern my friends:
- God’s response to our spiritual drift is that He will first remove His hand of blessing.
- If we are unresponsive, God will next remove His hand of protection over us and that leaves us vulnerable to all types of disasters.
- If we are still unresponsive, God will impose His hand of discipline upon us.
- And finally, if still we are unresponsive, God will bring judgment upon His drifting people.
Do you see that is what God was alerting King Solomon to consider? Do we understand this progression, and can we identify, on any given day, where we are in that natural drift and how God is responding to us?
But then, of course, God’s famous statement: “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 will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” You and I have heard this promise quoted many times in many different settings, but now hopefully you understand the context in which God spoke this great promise.
You see this promise is aimed at God’s People! They hold the key to God’s dealing with any nation!! The key word in this promise of God, of course, is the word IF! It’s a trigger word which has the potential to unleash an avalanche of activity both for the repentant people, the spiritually drifting people and for Almighty God who longs to rescue and restore His drifting people. Of course, this “IF” means that unless we do what God requires, we cannot expect God to do what He has promised.
We can easily see four specific action steps which God is watching for in His people, and all four action steps flow out of a repentant, humble heart which realizes the futility and even fatality of spiritual drifting.
It begins with HUMILITY because the greatest contributor to spiritual drift is pride and self reliance, the attitude of boredom with God and the mindset that says, ‘I don’t need God’. Do you see God is watching for us to HUMBLE OURSELVES? If you’d like a good challenge, look up all the verses in the Bible which your concordance lists are related to the word ‘humble’ or ‘humility’! Without humility everything else is self-serving, pretending, pretense.
After the action of ‘humble themselves’ is the action of ‘prayer’. Prayer to God from a humble heart is much different than prayer to God from a prideful heart. Do you remember the story Jesus gave about that and the proud Pharisee praying and the humble tax collector praying? (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus closed that story with this statement: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Have you learned that prayer is as much about the attitude of the heart from which prayer flows up to God as the words the prayer expresses! In this promise God makes to Solomon, do you see God is ready to respond to the prayer flowing from a humble, repentant heart which seeks to honor God in all things?
At the same time, I urge us to watch out for the warning found in Psalm 66:18! “If I had cherished sin in my heart the LORD would not have heard my prayer.”
The third action step God is watching for is our pursuit of a close relationship with God which is symbolized by the phrase ‘seek My face’. Rather than seeking God’s rewards or God’s blessings or God’s help in our time of need, God is looking for those who seek to know God and nurture a loving relationship with God. That’s what ‘seek My face” means. We understand of course because we long to look into the eyes, see the smile, caress the face of those we love, right?
I know there’s a fourth major step in 2 Chronicles 7:14 which is key to God’s response to us in our time of despair, but let’s leave that for tomorrow. We need to pause right here, giving ourselves time to meditate on what God has said to us already today. Look back over this key promise of God and the prerequisites from us before God will take His promised action. And here’s a worship song to help us take these steps with Jesus…
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 7:8-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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