I believe we could all agree that if you are counted among those who believe in prayer, now would be a good time to pray. Today is as tumultuous as any time that I can remember. I was born in the early 60’s and though that was the decade that witnessed the march from Selma to Montgomery, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the Vietnam War and Woodstock, I was too young and immature to fully understand all that was going on. It hasn’t been smooth sailing from then to now, but today seems different.
Prayer certainly wasn’t designed exclusively for times of crisis though that is an excellent time to pray. Asking our Father for aid and assistance, particularly when times are exceedingly difficult only makes sense. It certainly helps to cast our burdens on him and to ask for his help and his strength, for his guidance and wisdom, and mostly for his love, grace, and mercy.
At times like these, due to the difficulty and darkness, we half expect the world to join us in prayer. We should not. They have rejected the rule of God and of his son and have chosen to follow a different path, one of their own making. Their gods are not our gods. Neither are their hopes our hopes or their priorities our priorities.
Yet the call to prayer remains and pray we should. I’m reminded of the story of when Solomon first dedicated the temple to God. There was sacrifice and celebration in Jerusalem for 7 days as the people gathered to worship and pray. After years of bondage and wandering, God had provided the Israelites a home. In gratitude, Solomon built a permanent place of worship. And worship they did, and they sacrificed and prayed.
Shortly thereafter, scripture states…
the Lord appeared to him at night and said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. 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, 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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:12-14 NIV
God’s call is clear and it is to his own that he calls to draw near. God paints the picture that there will be times of difficulty and darkness such as droughts, pestilence, and plagues. Today is such a time. Yet the promise is that if we, the people who claim to know God will humble ourselves to seek him in prayer and turn from our sin, that he will forgive us and heal our land. This is speaking to the church, not those outside. The call is that we should humble ourselves and pray and that we should turn from our sin and our wicked ways.
This is often lost and the church can rail against those on the outside as if their repentance would bring salvation. Yet this is not the promise. It is directed at believers to do the praying and repenting, not for the sins of others but for our own. Only then will salvation come. Jesus taught as much when he encouraged us to remove the log from our own eyes before condemning others. And Peter confirmed that judgement begins in God’s house first (1 Peter 4:17).
In this difficult moment, let us who claim to be God’s people humble ourselves, let us repent of our ways and our sins and let us pray.