Heal our land or heal our church?

After the dedication of the Jerusalem Temple, God gave this warning of Israel's future disobedience, His righteous punishment and the way His people could find relief.

2 Chron. 7:12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.

This passage is often applied to the United States, as if our country was made up entirely of God’s people. These promises were specifically for God's people Israel under the Old Covenant, but surely God’s people today “the Church”, could expect God to act on our behalf if we follow the same principles.

If we are concerned about the state of our local church body, and we always should be, should we come together, humble ourselves, pray, seek His face/will and turn from our wicked ways? If we did, would He set right whatever needs to be set right?

You may be asking, what have we done wrong that we need to humble ourselves, what sin do we need to turn from and why is doing this as His church important today?

Well the easy answer is this: Most churches/Christians spend far too little time coming together as His people to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face/will and turn from the sin of self sufficiency that surely lies behind our unwillingness to take these most basic spiritual principles serious!

 

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."