Pray For Our Nation! By Lane Jordan Burday
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and see 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).
This is one of my very favorite verses in the Bible. It is an Old Testament covenant promise delivered by God to King Solomon, son of King David. It offers ancient Israel a way to stay in God’s favor: if the nation abandons its pride and repents, God will forgive them and restore their land.
In the previous chapter 6, King Solomon has just finished building and dedicating the magnificent First Temple in Jerusalem. The building cost an immense amount of labor and vast resources, which his father, King David, had collected.
On the night following the dedication, God appeared to Solomon in a dream to accept the Temple as a house of prayer and sacrifice, but also to issue a crucial warning.
Back when Israel was leaving the forty years in the wilderness and ready to step into the promised land, Moses spoke again to the people. Deuteronomy is the book that records this, and in Deuteronomy 28, Moses reiterated that God had entered into a covenant with Israel and promised to take care of them and prosper them as long as they obeyed Him.
God warned Solomon that if Israel turned away, worshipped other gods, and failed to obey, He would bring judgments upon the land, such as drought, locusts, or pestilence.
But the beauty of the verse above is that God gives a way out! It’s an “If-Then” Promise! From the previous verse 13, God says: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, IF my people…”
In other words, God is showing such love and mercy to His people! Because even if they sin against Him and He must send curses upon them, all they have to do is:
- Humble themselves. Stop any pride before the Lord
- Pray. God was in their presence in the temple! Go to Him in prayer.
- Seek His Face. Turn their faces from themselves and the world and be totally dependent on God.
- Turn from their evil, wicked ways. This means to repent fully and turn the opposite way from their sin.
Then, God will hear them! He will forgive them and reconcile with them! And He will heal their land!
Today, we use this verse as a cry for our nation, the United States of America, to turn back to our foundation as stated in our laws and the scriptures written on the walls of the buildings in our nation’s capital. We have taken God’s Word from our schools, allowed the killing of our future young people, and left churches and other forms of coming together as a community of people of God.
We are now celebrating 250 Years as a country. My heart is grieved by how different America is today than when I was growing up. So, will you join me in praying daily for our great country?
Oh God, awaken Your Church to holiness, humility, and the power in prayer, and please heal our land.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12)!
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