Humble, Pray, Seek, and Turn

At the dedication of Solomon’s Temple, after Solomon has prayed and petitioned God to reside in the temple and to hear and answer the prayers that are made in that place, God responds by saying "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
 
Such a powerful response to Solomon’s petition. God doesn’t say “I might or I might not” or maybe, but He succinctly tells Solomon if my people come to me humbly and pray and seek my face and turn from wickedness “I WILL” hear your prayers and move in a way that no other entity could do. I believe the scripture that says “God is no respecter of persons”, so if God makes that promise to Solomon, why can’t we all expect the same thing. (By the way, the answer is we can!)
 
God said:

• Come humbly - Not my will but thine be done. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done!  I’m not ever going to impress God or tell him what to do.
• And pray - How many times are we instructed in the word of God to “pray without ceasing”,  “when ye pray”, “let them pray”, or just “pray”, and yet to too many people of God prayer is the last resort or the “hail Mary”, when they don’t know what else to do. I don’t know whether to believe people who talk to me if we haven’t developed some sort of relationship. Just saying? Maybe it’s not working because we’re not doing it?
• Seek my face - The Hebrew word for “face” in the Old Testament is often translated “presence”, so God is telling us to seek His presence. There are far too many times when God’s face, His presence, is often obscured by our lives and fleshly desires. Remember what James wrote “draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you”.
• Turn from your wicked ways - When you come humbly to pray and seek God’s presence, chances are pretty good that you are going to see some things in you that don’t look so good. When we are informed about wickedness by the Lord, we have to turn away from it and get it out of our lives. God is not shining that spotlight on our wickedness for no reason. He knows we’re better off without it and it has been hindering us getting what we need from God.

 
But, just listen what we get in exchange for coming to God right and getting that wickedness out of us:

• Then will I hear from heaven - Yes, heaven is interested in your life and wants to be involved.  EF Hutton, pffhhh! I’ve got heaven.  (If you’re under 30 ask an “old person” about that reference)

• I will forgive their sin - I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we are all born in sin and shapen in iniquity, so we need the God of all Glory to forgive us. I’m sure everyone that is reading this is perfect, but this preacher still needs forgiveness so I want this included.

• I will heal their land: We have so many things that divide us in “Our land”. Red states, Blue states, Pro-life, Pro-choice, liberal, conservative and the list goes on and on. I remind you this whole text is about God and we need God to heal our land more now than ever before. We need God to bring us all back together under the banner of righteousness, holiness, and love. This is only work that God can do!

 
Please humble yourself before God. Please pray. Please seek God’s presence. Please turn from your wicked ways!
 
We need God!
Pastor Hoffman