“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)
My earliest memory of pastor Barry who is Parkdale’s Pastor of Care, is Barry teaching us children in Sunday School 2 Chronicles 7:14 while he led us in singing - week after week after week - we would groan when we heard it for the 100th time, but boy did it ever stick in my mind - thank you Barry for the blessing you gave me and the other children. This verse is very clear and simple to understand, for it teaches that forgiveness follows repentance and that healing follows forgiveness. Put the other way - it teaches that if I want to be healed I need to be forgiven, and if I want to be forgiven, I need to repent. A little closer look reveals that there are three actions by God’s people, followed by three actions by God Himself, three sets of complementary actions.
we pray- He hears
we seek his face - He forgives us
we turn from our wicked ways – He heals our land.
But these three complementary actions initiated by His people follow His divine action of grace
“who are called by His name”
Friend are you called by his name?
We read in the beginning of this chapter of the amazing event at the consecration of Solomon’s temple, as the very Presence of God moved into the building, and the verse we are considering is spoken by God to Solomon in regards to how He will treat the people who worship at this place that contains His Presence. Now friend, we are in that time/age that our Lord Jesus described to the Samaritan woman in John 4, for we don’t worship at a mountain, but we worship in Spirit and in truth, for when we called on the Lord for salvation, our bodies became the temple of the Holy Spirit, and truth is demanded in our inmost being.
So let us seek His face, let us pray this day, and let us turn from our wicked ways into the healing he has prepared for us.
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