A Prayer for a little word

2 Chronicles 7:14 NIV

“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.”

I love this verse. It seems like I have seen it a lot over the past several years as social tensions have escalated across our nation. As someone learning to appreciate the power of real prayer, I am glad to have seen this verse called out and I believe it is true. However, I started to see this verse so frequently used to promote Christian events that I started to feel dismissive of it. I caught myself as I scrolled through a Christian website one time thinking “there’s that verse again.” That thought made me stop immediately. Who I am to dismiss the word of God? I was projecting my own guilt. I felt convicted by my own tendency to use the words of God to give credibility to my actions rather than allow my actions to be inspired by those words. However, I’m writing this because I don’t think I’m the only one who is guilty of borrowing on God’s credibility to justify something I want to do. I have no political agenda or opinion to express here, but you may have seen our President recently photographed holding up a Bible. To my knowledge he didn’t say why he did it and I won’t speculate on his motives. However, the image seems to create a timely visual to my point. I’m certainly guilty of wanting to do something then trying to validate my point of view by figuratively holding up the Bible. We can’t let the word of God merely be a sentiment or a placard. No, we need to let those Holy words inspire and move us. There are forces at either side of the political spectrum who are eagerly trying to pull our country apart and it is hard not to be drawn into that pain and answer a call to one action or another. I hope you will realize it is not the extremes that need our strength and focus; it is the middle. To that end I pray that we, as Americans, would start to look toward one another to see our commonalities rather than our differences and clasp hands in the political middle to prevent the tear. As I said, though, I’m not making a political statement. As Christians I pray that we do not become dismissive of 2 Chronicles 7:14. We can’t allow God’s word on national healing to be a handy prop for our brand of nationalism. Especially not now. It is clear to me that the Lord has allowed His Church to be interrupted from our buildings and busyness, our programs and politicizing, our contentment and our content. Our Lord has been crying streams of tears and come back to find us, His Church, asleep. He has allowed a pandemic to be a wakeup call and He now stands before us to say “Look the hour has come” (Matt 26:45). He is concerned with the condition of our heart rather than the condition of our politics. He does not express concern about our degree of support for the President, or which political banner we wave, or which hashtag we post, or what weapons we carry. By contrast He says “put your sword back in its place” (Matt 26:52). Anger and action are important but if guided by our own self-righteousness they won’t bring healing. Jesus does not model self-defense. He models compassion. The hour has come, Church, to wake up and ask ourselves who we are defending and who we are sacrificing. I think He wants to see His Church set aside our rights, our politics, our pride, and our differences. How do we do that? Look at the verse you’ve seen countless times. He tells us what actions to take to heal our land. To those of us who are called by His name, he says we are to humble ourselves, pray, and seek His face. Christian, the Lord put you where you are in this moment and you have a unique part to play. I hope that your actions, whatever they may be, are being informed by a humble prayer life. It is easy to point out other people’s wicked ways and demand they turn from them, but are we turning from our wicked ways? He is more than able to heal our land, but are we able to acknowledge that big fat “IF”? There is where the real tension lies. The hour has come, Church.