Have any of you ever received an email forward? What about the ones that have something to do with religion, or the Bible? Like if you pass this along to 24 people and pray then you will see the face of Jesus in your closet door when you go to sleep tonight. That last one is a little out there, but I have seen similar forwards in my past.
Our First reaction is to read them, and really no matter what else it may say we remember that it has scripture in it, or it talks about God, and usually in a good way, or it's one of those trying to convince people to put prayer back in school. I hate to burst their bubble, but prayer will always be in school. Like a sticker that used to be on my English teacher's desk read, "As long as there are tests in school, there will be prayer in school."
So we get these emails and we read them, and sometimes if they are really good we send them on to other people that we know will enjoy them. Let me read you one that a friend of mine sent me this week. I usually don't even open forwards, but I hadn't received an email from this person in a long time so I figured it might be something worth reading. As you turn in your copy of God's word I'm going to read to you what my friend emailed to me:
Some folks passing through Texarkana last week noted signs in people's yards that said, " America, prayer is our only hope" with 2 Chronicles 7:14 underneath. We certainly need God's help!
I have no idea who started this, but I certainly agree with this e-mail. I heard a preacher say "if we pray for our nation, things will turn around".
I have decided to reach out to my friends and relatives and ask you to do something that has been troubling me for a long time.
Our nation is/has been on the slippery slope for a long time. If you look around you will find corruption, greed, moral decay, and a steady move away from the things that made us great. The principles upon which this nation was founded are no longer our backbone. However, we can reverse this trend.
2 Chronicles 7:14 in God's word he states, "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 will forgive their sin and heal their Land."
I am convinced that we must pray for our nation and its leaders and ask for forgiveness S o I ask you to join me in this plea to our Lord.
Would you please send this to people in your address book (send it to all believers); ask them to pray EVERYDAY.
25 to only the 5th power is 9,765,625 people. IMAGINE if each person reaches TEN others...or all TWENTY FIVE!
If you do and they comply, we will lift up millions and millions of prayers a day to our Creator. He will hear, and will answer.
Let me just add a quote from Ronald Reagan "If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under." I truly believe this is why the United States of America is in the shape we are in today. Most people have forgotten that we are one nation under God! Let us as Christians stand up and remind people of this. ~ Have a blessed day!
Now upon reading that it sounds great right? It does. It makes you feel that if all Americans bind together and pray then by the power of prayer we can change our country.
1. Prayer can change anything, don't ever think otherwise.
2. But just because we are Americans doesn't mean we are all Christians.
Let's look at what Scripture has to say.
God came to Solomon
(v.11) Solomon had finished the temple
Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and In his palace.
You can go back to 2 Samuel 6 and see where David, Solomon's father, had brought the Ark of the covenant back to the Jerusalem, and was making plans to build a temple. Further reading shows us that David never built the temple but Solomon was left to finish this task.
Now if we look at the end of Chapter 6 of 2 Chronicles (verses 40-42) we can see Solomon has prepared a sacrifice for God and he is praying that he accept not only the sacrifice but the temple that has been constructed. After he prayed God sent fire down and consumed the offering and filled the temple with His glory, so much that the priests of the temple couldn't enter the temple. (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)
After the priests are able to go back into the temple we find that Solomon is beginning to prepare another sacrifice to God, this time it is one all the people can partake in. This sacrifice is one of giving thanks to God for finding the temple suitable enough for His presence to dwell. (7:4-5)
This sacrifice is one that incorporates everyone there, and it is one that shows their willingness to God and that shows how they are fully relying on Him.
- The temple is completed
- The sacrifice is excepted
- The Israelites bring a willing sacrifice to God
Next Solomon goes and talks with God. God reaffirms that He will dwell in the temple. (v.12)
God will always be there
(v.13-14) If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and 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, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
If He cuts off the rain
If He sends locusts
And the people realize they must go to God in humility
God knows that right now the people of Israel are very close to Him in their spiritual walk. They are in the presence of God, Yahweh. They realize no matter what happens in their life, they can go to God and He will always be there.
He will heal them, and forgive them, and restore their land.
For us New Testament Christians we must understand that our sacrifice has be accepted (Christ's Death) and that allows us to be in God's presence. We don't have to do any work on the part of sacrifice it has all been taken care of for us. If we are going to continually be in the presence of God we need to go to Him first. Not our best friend, or a family member, Him.
If things don't go our way, or we find ourselves in circumstances we don't necessarily like, or aren't good for us, we need to first go to God.
When God said , "My people" at this time he was talking about the Israelites. Because we understand that Christ died for all of our sins we have become adopted sons and daughters of God. ( Galatians 4) We are all a part of God's family, but we are under the new covenant. This is one difference we have to understand. The Israelites' religion and nationality was one and the same. For us we can be any nationality, and be a Christian. That is just one of the freedoms we have through Christ.
God wants us to understand, "if" He decides to make all these things happen, He wants us to come to Him.The Israelites used the land for everything, everyday. It was their livelihood. God was honoring the Israelites, because they were honoring Him. If he allowed these things to happen to them He would honor their requests, but they would first have to come to Him in humility.
So many times this scripture is misinterpreted by people, especially Americans. We are so arrogant to think that " heal their land" refers to America. You say, " Well we are God's people." Yes we are and if you know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior then we are children of God. But unlike the Israelites, which their nationality and religion are one, we are Christians but we don't have to be Americans.
For years people growing up in America, with a church on every corner, believed that because we have " In God We Trust" on the money, then We are automatically a Christian nation. We are blessed to live in a country that had Christian men digging the foundation and if we took that foundation, aka a relationship with Christ, seriously then we would start seeing some changes in our country. The only way that God will truly heal America is if we all pray for our officials, and leaders to come to know who Christ is and let that show in their lives.
The same goes for us, no we might not be president, or a congressman, but we are first and most importantly Christians. It doesn't matter who our family is, what sports we play, even what we like and dislike our opinions do not matter. All that matters is Christ, and if we all took our relationship with Him seriously, then we would all seek Him in every decision that we make.
We have to prepare a place for Him , accept the sacrifice that He has prepared for us, so that His presence can dwell in our life. This is not limited to just one people group, but is open to everyone through the power of Christ, which came to earth in the form of a babe, but was fully shown through the cross.
So ask yourself these two questions:
Have you prepared a place for Him? Is He pleased with it?
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