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 (NIV)
If you have read about Israel in the Old Testament, you know that they seemed to have a unilateral relationship with God. In times of plenty, they would forget Him and run after other gods. Nevertheless, they would always cry out to Him in times of need or trouble. Their relationship was so one-sided that God often allowed Israel’s enemies to afflict them so they would cry out to Him.
Reading about it makes me feel upset at Israel and bad for God, but if we are honest, it seems that sometimes we, the church tend to act just as the people of Israel did. Some of us do not talk to God unless we need Him, and we stop talking to Him if He does not give us what we ask.
God sure has His hands full with us sometimes, for we are the only ones in the entire universe that dares to treat our Creator as our equal and sometimes as lesser than us. For as powerful as the sun is, when did it refuse to give God glory and not shine? Has the Earth ever stopped rotating? Even when it groans due to our sin, it still does what God commands it to do.
People of God, I suggest we take some time to examine our prayer life this week. The Creator of Heaven and Earth desires to spend time with us. He wants us to pray. The God that controls the universe is always ready to talk to us. Let us remember that we are dust and that we need God even to breathe.
Let us remember that we are His people, the sheep of His pasture, and let us separate some time to talk to Him. Also, let us do it not because we need Him but because we can. Let us humble ourselves enough to pray and recognize that He is our God.
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