If My People...

I'm interrupting my normally scheduled blogging for this post...

We’re ready for election day tomorrow. And typically I’m not one to say anything. I’m as sick of all the political who-ha as the rest of you. But this verse stopped me yesterday.  See, I’ve heard it my entire life growing up, especially as we near and election day, yet I’ve always ‘heard’ it wrong.

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

That first part: if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face…that part I understood. It’s a call for the church to pray for their nation. To earnestly seek God—especially now. As Christians, we should vote based on His Word, not on anyone else’s, which means we need to seek Him to know His voice.

It’s the next six words that stopped me yesterday: and turn from their wicked ways. Now, I always applied that to the sins of our nation. Pointed the finger at all the people who are living apart from God. All the ways our nation has fallen from God. But yesterday I heard it for the first time and swung my pointing finger around to me.

Because God’s not talking about them, He’s talking about us. He clearly says: my people, called by my name, turning from their ways.

Christians.

Humbling ourselves not only in prayer but in admitting where we sin and turning from it. None of us are perfect, but we all know right from wrong based on the measuring stick of God's Word. We know when we are living outside His will. And sometimes in our effort to reach this world, or merely by living here and being worn down by it, we blur the line between right and wrong in God’s eyes. We become like Church of Laodicea, neither hot or cold. (Revelation 3:14-22) And before He will move, He’s asking us to move—back to Him.

Yes, we’ll look different—but we are supposed to. It’s the only way we can draw them to Jesus. And THEN He can heal our land and their hearts. 

So today, vote and pray. Pray for God to show us where we can change. Pray for Him to place His healing hand on those around us. Pray for wisdom for our leaders. Pray for God's will to be done. And VOTE. Too many have sacrificed life and limb for us to have that right--so honor them and exercise it. You might think your voice doesn't count, but when someone died for you to have that voice, you need to use it.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...;)