If My People

But in God’s plan humility is the foundational stone on which healing is built. There is, I believe, a progression in verse 14. Our progression starts with humility, then prayer, then seeking God’s face and repentance. God’s response is a three-step process. He hears from heaven, he forgives and he heals the land.

On this 4th of July weekend when we celebrate the heritage we have as Americans let me ask if our nation is need of healing? Sure there are Katrina’s and drought but we can aid those who are hurting. Yes we remember 9/11 but we’re fighting terrorism. The economy has been in the toilet but according to some of the "talking heads" it is already showing signs of improvement. So do we even need God’s healing?

Do any of you remember the old cartoon, Pogo? In Walk Kelly’s 27 years there were some memorable statements but the most famous has to be, "We have met the enemy and they is us." That’s the issue when it comes to the need for healing in our land today. We, God’s people, the Church [with a capital ’C’] are the ones called on to be humble and pray. God doesn’t expect the 12% who have no religious identity to humble themselves. He doesn’t expect those who are skeptics and who are Buddhist, Wiccan, or Muslim to humble themselves. He does expect those who claim Christ to do that and I believe that includes a fair number of that 66% for whom causal Christianity seems enough.

Beyond this we are to pray. This is prayer that goes to the heart of seeking God’s face. It is prayer with God at the center not us. Jill Briscoe writes, "When we pray for ourselves, our petitions usually center around what we think we need or what we are sure so-and-so needs. God sees needs in our lives that are far more urgent than those we have written on our heavenly supermarket list." The prayer that flows from a humble heart is a prayer that listens to God’s voice and hears what needs to change. It is a heart that moves us into new and different places. It is a heart that leads to repentance.

Repentance is not a religious word. It comes from a place and time in which people had a history of nomadic life. It comes from a time when GPS, AAA maps and street signs didn’t exist. In such a place it is easy to get lost. Move along a set of interlocking paths through the Wadis and canyons of the desert or across a strange place and one can lose their way. When you finally say, "I’m headed the wrong direction" you’ve hit the first part of repentance. But repentance doesn’t take effect until you go a different direction. In fact, repentance itself is an act of humility because it is admitting we don’t know the way. It is letting others see that we are wrong and yet willing to be turned a new direction.

Does our nation need healing? Yes! But that will come only when, we decide we are done with all the casualness of our relationship with Jesus. It will happen when God’s people pray from a humbled position and when we seek God’s face and there’s never been a better time than now.