The Day After

Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer.  There were prayer gatherings, large and small, across our nation.  On town squares and state house steps.  In living rooms and conference rooms and around flag poles.  It's inspiring and encouraging to see all these prayer gatherings.  I'm grateful that we still have the freedom to pray publicly for our country.

What happens today?  Will there continue to be public prayer meetings and large gatherings of people praying for our country?  Probably not, although prayer is needed just as much today, and tomorrow, and the next day, as it was yesterday.

On these public prayer days, a verse from the Old Testament book of 2nd Chronicles is often quoted. 

"If my people who are called by my name 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."  (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

This word from the Lord was originally spoken to Solomon on the occasion of the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem.  A few verses later in the same chapter, the Lord warns of what will happen if His people turn aside from the Lord's commandments.  There will be consequences for abandoning the Lord's ways.  (2 Chronicles 7:19-22.)

There can be little doubt that as a nation we have turned aside from the Lord's commandments and are not wholeheartedly following His ways.  Even more troubling, there are many among us who call themselves Christian, and yet are not wholeheartedly following the Lord.  Could it be that the troubles we are facing as a nation stem from this root?  And if so, is there hope for us?

I believe there is hope, and the solution is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14.  If my people, God's people, follow the plan outlined in these verses, God will hear.  Yes, in its original context these words applied to the Jews.   But there's a principle here that still is valid.

If my people.  These instructions are not to the pagans or the politicians.  Not to the atheists or the agnostics.  These instructions are to the people of God.  To the people called by His name.  What are God's people to do?

Humble themselves.  And here we get to the root of the problem.  We're not very good at humbling ourselves.  We don't want to humble ourselves, before God or anyone else.  We want to be in charge.  We think we know what is best.  We think because we are American we have certain rights to do and say and think as we please.  Yet God says we are to humble ourselves.  This is much like what Jesus instructed when he taught His disciples, and us, how to pray.  "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  (Matthew 6:10 KJV).  Even Jesus humbled Himself before the Father when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will, but yours be done."  (Luke 22:42 ESV)

To humble ourselves is to acknowledge that we are not God.  Yesterday when my husband and I were out and about, we passed a church with a sign at the end of their driveway that read "Remember, God's still God and you're still not."  Remembering that is the essence of what it means to humble ourselves before God.  Remember who's in charge!

Pray.  We think we understand what prayer is, don't we?  Too often people think of prayer as giving God our list of wants and concerns, a kind of to-do list for God to handle.  Is that really all there is to it?  Is prayer really only giving God a list, or reciting a memorized poem, or mumbling a quick sentence before we go to bed?  Is that really what God meant when He said His people are to "humble themselves and pray"?  I think not. 

Prayer is communication.  And communication is two-way, meaning there is speaking and there is listening.  Certainly one blog is not adequate to explain all that prayer is, but I definitely think God is expecting more than just a hastily mumbled mantra every day.  Does that mean that longer prayers are better, somehow more spiritual?  Does God hear us more clearly if we talk longer or use bigger words.  Of course not.  In fact, Scripture cautions against "empty phrases" (Matthew 6:7 ESV).  The point is to be sincere in our communication with God.

Seek my face.  This is an extension of the point about praying.  Many years ago I heard someone say that we should "seek the Blesser, not the blessing".  How often when we pray do we seek what God can do for us, rather than just seeking God Himself.  Because God desires relationship with His people, He desires that we seek HIM and not just seek what He can give.

Turn from their wicked ways.  This is the very definition of repentance, to turn from sin, to change direction.  If we have sincerely sought the Lord, have humbled ourselves before Him, we will have become aware of those things in our lives that are displeasing to Him and we will want to repent.

Then.  When we have followed God's instructions, He promises to hear and to forgive our sin and to heal our land.  When we do things His way!

Will our land be healed because people gather in groups one day a year to pray for our nation?  No.  It's a good thing when people gather together to pray.  But it's a better thing, a more important thing, when individuals come daily before the Lord in prayer.  To intercede for the nation.  To intercede for families.  To intercede for the lost.  To commit themselves to doing things God's way.

A day of prayer is a good thing.  A lifestyle of prayer is even better.

"Lord, teach us to pray." (Luke 11:1 ESV)

"Go home.  Lock yourself in your room.  Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself.  There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle." (Rodney "Gypsy" Smith, British evangelist)