Verse of the Day Devotion: 2 Chronicles 7:14 

“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       

This verse takes place upon the completion of the Temple by Solomon, after which God appears to him.  “Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house. All that Solomon had planned to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house he successfully accomplished.  Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.” 2 Chronicles 7:11-12. 

At this point, God tells Solomon how they were to address difficult times due to wrongdoing.  We see this idea in verse 13 where God speaks of when national judgement comes.  “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people,”  2 Chronicles 7:13.  He would no doubt do these things only in order to bring His people back to the ways of righteousness.  Let us look at what this focus verse says and apply it to us when we go through hard times because we turn from God.

The first thing He says is who this verse applies to.  To those who are His.  Those who are called by His name.  In our time those are Christians.  They are the new Jerusalem, Gods people.  It is not speaking here to those who are not Christians.  Yes, they do need to come to Him, giving up their old lives and committing themselves to Christ.  However, this verse speaks to those who have already given themselves to Him. 

And now are we to approach Him when we stumble?  We are to go to Him in humility, humbling ourselves before Him.  We are to bow before Him, acknowledging we have sinned against Him, putting aside any pride or arrogance we may have, recognizing that it was us who decided to sin, no matter what came our way that led us in that direction.  The only two reasons we can honestly give is we either have not studied His Word to see it is wrong, or we choose to do wrong.  Therefore, we are to come to Him in humility understanding we are totally at fault.  Next, in our humility, we are to pray and seek His face.  We must go to Him and acknowledge what we have done and ask Him to forgive us.  And it must come from the depths of our being, not simply saying the words believing this will make things OK.  And we must commit to turn away from our wicked ways, truthfully working toward removing these evil ways from our lives. 

And when we do all this, with complete honesty from the depths of our heart, He will see this and hear our heart crying out to Him and will forgive us and heal whatever difficulties came forth from what we did.  It is important that we do not only go through the motions but truly are repentant and broken because of our sin.  When we do this, then God will truly forgive us and make us whole again.  So I encourage us all to go to Him when we realize we have sinned and humbly confess them to God in reality and humility.  God desires us to come before Him this way, and He will make good on this promise when we do.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.