Is 2 Chronicles 7:14 a Good Verse to Use For Prayer Meetings?
I am glad Angus Buchan used James 5:16 as the theme Scripture for this #ItsTime prayer! If the much used 2 Chronicles 7:14 gets used, then just remember to interpret it through the clear lenses of the New Covenant, because it is an Old Covenant promise and can easily be misconstrued!
So, in light of such a special day of prayer, I feel to exposit it here. Please allow me this indulgence. The verse 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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
1. Who are called by His name? Everyone. For God so loved? THE WORLD!! (Many more Scriptures to support these various points, but hey, it's Facebook.)
2. “Humble yourself, pray, seek His face, turn from wicked ways.” All good things. But what determines a wicked way? How much do we seek His face to get a response? Etc. These make things difficult to determine WHEN/IF God will respond. Thus, not knowing your status as 100% cleansed by the redeeming Power of Christ’s Work, will cause you to doubt if you've done enough. But the Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus HAS cleansed you! And you, thanks to Him, HAVE DONE ENOUGH!! (Hebrews 10:10, 2 Cor. 5:21) Now the heart of this is simple: Like Nicodemus had to come humbly to Jesus and admit He had questions about this “Messiah thing” (remember, Nic was a Pharisee!), this passage can simply be interpreted as coming to God humbly. Hey God! I'm here, and I (and we) need You! I recognize I can't do this alone. Etc.
3. “Then I will hear from Heaven”. Does God only hear when you meet the earlier requirements. You see my argument of what would determine enough humbling yourself? Enough seeking His face? Enough praying? Enough turning from enough wicked ways? The point is: God always hears you! But are you asking?
4. This brings us to another point: Does God only respond when people ask? This is a tough one to explain. But unfortunately the evidence points to “kind of”. He has a Divine plan and strategy through the ages for something spectacular, but human free will is a key (I believe) to this divine plan. And thus, with free will in mind, it does indeed seem that it DOES take initiative from God’s people (all are God’s people, but will you join His ranks) to create a “demand on Heaven’s resources.” Yes it’s difficult to understand this. But this is the heart of this Scripture. Especially when interpreted through the New Covenant. We HAVE been forgiven. God HAS forgiven us. But will we at least utilize this salvation and seek to make a difference in this world?? Hence I rejoice with Angus’ incredible work this weekend!!
5. “THEN I will forgive their sin…” Old Covenant thinking will make you believe only when you turn to God are you forgiven. And worse still! You will need to continue turning to God throughout your life in order to get forgiven. No! You HAVE ALREADY BEEN forgiven!! Go read Colossians 2:13 and it's remarkably clear as day!!
6. “And heal their land”. Interesting one. If we are ALREADY forgiven, then, is not our land already healed? Well, Colossians 1:20 tells us that through His work on the Cross ALL THINGS were reconciled!!! So how do we figure out this messed up world if all things have already been reconciled? Well, that would be back to point 4. I believe it is now up to US! God’s holy and dearly loved children to appropriate what Jesus accomplished here on the earth. And hence, again, we rejoice with Angus and his team for “activating” people’s faith to make a difference, stand up, and say yes to an even better South Africa!
And hey! Even better than that! A better world!! It is possible!! Let's just believe it!!!
What a glorious day!!!
