Day 15 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

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. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Good morning, good morning, grace and peace be unto all of you, my Father's children. It is, in fact, day 15 of our 40-day Lenten devotional. As we close out this week, we've been focused on both forgiveness as well as repentance. So I thought it fitting for us to take a look at a familiar passage of Scripture prayerfully with a fresh lens. I'm going to look at 2 Chronicles, the seventh chapter, starting at the 14th verse. I think that's pretty much where I'll stay, right there, the 14th verse. And it reads, “if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, 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.”

This scripture has been echoed a lot, especially over the last, I don't know, five years as we looked around us at some of the things that have been taking place both in our surrounding world, but also in our lives as we look challenges, circumstances, and situations to try and figure out where God is or what God's doing. And so, ultimately we find here is that Solomon was getting ready to dedicate the temple. Solomon had already gone through enough as it related and the temple dedication had been a long time coming. Matter of fact, David wanted to build the temple, but he couldn't. So this was passed down to his son who finally gets to the place and point where the temple is finally built now they're getting ready to dedicate it. However,  however, he has to seek God first because as he looks around us, as he looks around him, it seems as though there's so much going on that he really needs to hear from the Lord before he moves. And that's where we find ourselves.

I know some of us get caught up with watching the news and  we're trying to predict and see what next movement is that God is trying to do. And God is saying, I need you to  seek my face. First thing that he says is if my people will call by my name, he's talking to you, talking to us.  He says, if my people call by my name would humble themselves. This is where that place of repentance comes in. Humbling says, listen, God, I haven't been perfect. God, I missed the mark. God, I could have done better. I still can do better. And the truth be told, I have not been as dedicated and or committed to this walk, this calling  or to your voice since the inception. So before I ask you to do anything else, the first thing I'm doing is humbling myself to come to you  wholeheartedly, earnestly, to say, I'm sorry.  Guide me. I tried to do this by myself, I can't.  That humbling experience is the most challenging part of repentance, because repentance forces you to come face to face with your fragility,  come face to face with  your dirtiness, your nastiness, and even in a lot of times, your insufficiency.

But understand that God is elevated in the places of your weakness. And when you fail to humble yourself, you fail to give room for God to come in and transform and change you. So here it is, he says, humble yourself. And it says right after humble themselves, he said, I need you to pray. After you've repented, I want you to stay in. And he said, and seek my face. That word seeking his face is literally speaking to the place of saying, God, I want you to guide. I don't need to try and make this decision on my own. I need you to do it.  And so I'm seeking your face. I'm seeking your wisdom. I'm seeking your guidance.  And I'm going to turn from the area and places that I thought I could do myself. But finally, he says, after all of that, this conditional notion, God's response to Solomon's prayer is a conditional. Look, if my people called by my name, humble themselves and pray, seek my face,  then  will you hear from heaven.

So if you've been listening  and waiting for God to speak, you are on a probably start with the first portion of the condition. Humble yourself, pray, seek his face. Then he's going to heal your land. Now I don't know about you, but I'm in need of healing. And I know the land that I live in is in desperate need of healing. So me as the people that he's talking to, I'm going to pay attention to the conditions set for it.

Listen, it's Friday. Have an incredible, credible, credible weekend. I pray that all of you, if you want to have an opportunity on Saturday–Saturday at 6 o'clock p.m–got our movie night. Come on out, and it'll be a wonderful time. Listen, I can't wait to see each and every one of you again on Sunday morning. And then finally, of course, we'll be back in devotion on Monday morning. But God bless you. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Have a phenomenal Friday.