Daily Devotion (August 31, 2024)
2 Chronicles 7:13–15
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.
15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
God judges sin in the life of a nation. America will be and is being judged by God. Jeremiah 18:8 “if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.” America, a once prosperous nation, is crumbling into the depths of abomination and has turned it’s back to God; a nation that was founded upon the Word of God. America is not a theocracy, but many of the founding fathers acknowledged the importance of Christian principles in shaping the nations values.
The nation has moved beyond Christian principles. The nation has turned from God to the wicked ways of a world governed by Satan. God is and will bring judgement upon America.
There is hope! “If my people” -God’s great promise to His people. The church is where God’s people come together to worship God. The church needs to confess we have not lived up to being the “called out ones.” The church has become self-focused. Many churches have become proud and boisterous. Instead of being the “called out ones” the church has become self-focused instead of God focused. Not is there preaching of God’s Word from the pulpit of the church but messages of self-help in becoming more prosperous by worldly standards.
There is hope! God is not dead. His Spirit is still at work! We, the church, must humble ourselves before God. The hope of God is found in the lives of individual believers in Christ. We come together with humbled spirits and pray and seek God’s face. A major part of the verse is we turn from our wicked ways! We turn from our wicked ways. How do we know we have truly humbled ourselves before God and confessed our sin? We turn away from our wicked ways. We cannot look at the sin of another. We must focus on our own sin, individually. We must not just confess we have sinned; we must repent of the sin and turn from the sin and towards God!
When we turn from sin and allow God to cleanse us then God promised our prayers would not fall upon deaf ears. God would hear our prayers.
There is an emptiness in the lives of many professing Christians. The emptiness is the lack of the power of God working in their lives. God will not share Himself with the works of darkness. America has fallen into the abyss of satanic influence. No longer is America a nation built upon Christian principles. The nation has fallen.
The verse does not say “if the nation” will humble itself. It says, “If my people…” We must put away the spiritual pride and humble ourselves before God and seek His Face. Are you willing to do so?