If MY People…

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to see the fault in other people?  She is just too demanding, he is needy.  If only she didn’t gossip (unfortunately we often gossip when we make this comment).  They drink too much, wear the wrong clothes.  Those people are not following God.  They should get their act together.  If they would get THEIR act together then our country would be MUCH better.  My fellow Christians, I beg to differ.  Yes, our country is not acknowledging God.  Yes, our country is calling wicked things good.  Yes, our country as a whole is NOT living the way God would want us to live. However getting our country right doesn’t start by telling non-believers what to think or do or believe.  No!  God tells us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 how to “heal” our land…He says, “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 will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

You see it starts with US.  God’s people.  Not unbelievers, not the unchurched, not those of different faiths, not government officials, not schools.  No, it starts with those who have a personal relationship with Jesus.  It starts with humbling ourselves.  We don’t have it figured out.  We are in need of God’s grace and mercy as much if not more than those who don’t know God.  It starts with humbling ourselves and remembering that we are helpless and hopeless without Jesus.

Next we need to pray.  In Ephesians 6:18 it tells us to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests…”  We need to pray.  When we are humble, we are apt to turn to God and know we can’t do it ourselves.  So the natural thing to do is pray.  Pray for wisdom, pray for healing, pray for direction, pray for those who don’t know Christ, pray for wisdom for our government, pray for our churches, pray for a love for God’s word for you and all those who love the Lord, pray….PRAY!  It isn’t hard, just pray for God to move and pray that you are willing to do what He calls you to do.  Pray!

Seek God’s face.  I have often thought that I was seeking God’s face.  I went to church each Sunday and sometimes even on Sunday and Wednesday nights.  I prayed, I sang worship songs, I listened to sermons.  Oh, but I wasn’t daily reading God’s word.  I wasn’t seeking God’s face, I was allowing others to describe the what they found when they sought God’s face.  I was content with their rendition of what God’s face was.  I wasn’t hungry to see it myself.  Just like a picture doesn’t give justice to the Grand Canyon, neither relying on someone else’s experience of seeking God do justice to knowing God.  I confess that there are times I lapse into being content with seeing the reproduction of God’s face instead of being a seeker of God’s face myself.  Let us, children of God, NOT be content with what others have found as they seek God, but let us personally seek God’s face.  I am not saying that church, Bible Study, worship services, or Sunday School are worthless.  I am saying that we also need to seek God on our own.  Read His word daily.  Memorize His word!  Seek His face ourselves!

Turn from our wicked ways.  How often, as I seek God’s face on my own, have I discovered that my ways are wicked.  That I am desperately sinful and in need of God’s grace.  As my view of God becomes clearer and bigger, I realize how desperately sick and sinful I am.  Oh, that I would turn from those wicked ways.  I pray that God will give me the strength to turn from my wicked ways.

So my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, let us start with ourselves.  If we can start there, then God WILL hear us, God WILL forgive us, and God WILL heal our land!