The US elections are fast approaching, and US Christians are fervently praying. We’re holding the banner of 2 Chronicles 7:14 high:
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.
In essence, we’re crying, “See this scripture, Lord? You said it, Lord! We’re praying, and expecting you to act.”
Yet we have not met the requirements we so freely quote. We’re still confessing their sins. We’re still standing, hands on our hips, convinced their wicked ways are leading our country into ruin.
Recently, I sat in a worship service as a minister stood before the church congregation and prayed, “Lord, please have mercy on our nation. There’s so much greed, so much sexual sin and many other evils. We’ve dealt with those things, but so many others out there have not.”
Wait. Stop. Rewind. We’ve dealt with those things? We have no wicked ways, to speak of? “Others out there” are solely to blame?
How stunning to hear spoken aloud a belief hidden in hearts all across our church culture. How stunning to know God sees our hearts as clearly as I heard that minister’s words.
It’s important to pray for cities and nations, governments and leaders. It’s important to stand courageously for righteousness and justice. Scripture commands it. The Lord himself will guide us in it.
But know this: Healing a land hinges, not on who wins its elections. Healing a land hinges on the humility of the people there who identify themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Healing our land hinges on our willingness, as people called by God’s name, to let him shine his light on our sins.
This humbling ourselves does not include self-flagellation. It doesn’t create morbid introspection. It’s maintaining a posture before God that releases the forgiveness already ours in Christ.
In our innermost being, we stand before our Lord, watching his face, trusting him to expose what needs to be exposed, in the timing he chooses. When his piercing eyes reveal in us what we didn’t want to see, we move toward him, not away. From our spirit, we say aloud what he says. By his Spirit, we abandon those ways our Father calls “wicked.”
In our day in our nation, God is speaking to his church about our deep double-mindedness. He’s shining his light on our divided hearts. If we will not hear him on this matter, we cannot lay claim to the promises of 2 Chronicles 7:14.
Only as we learn to walk in the profound “forgiven-ness” that humbling ourselves releases – and as we do so together in Christ – do we open the way for healing to come to our land.
Image by Alexander Naumann from Pixabay
Learn more about profound forgiven-ness and healing from our deep double-mindedness in:
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