2 Chronicles 7:14

NASB – 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, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

NLT – Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

VOICE – and My people (who are known by My name) humbly pray, follow My commandments, and abandon any actions or thoughts that might lead to further sinning, then I shall hear their prayers from My house in heaven, I shall forgive their sins, and I shall save their land from the disasters. 

God’s People Acts to God

The audience of this verse is the Israelites, God’s chosen people. In the Old Testament, being called by God’s name shows a special relationship and responsibility, shown as a privilege and obligation to society and the religious duties itself. The New Testament showcases this relationship through the Church, where God’s people are developed through faith in Christ. 

God’s people are called to do four things in this verse: humble themselves, pray, seek God, and repent. To humble oneself, it’s about acknowledging your dependence on God instead of trying to manage it all yourself. Jesus showcased that humility is a core foundation of the Christian values. Prayer is how God’s people communicate with Him. Prayer showcases how God’s people can maintain a relationship with God, through turning to God and acknowledging His power and intervention. To seek God’s face means that we are going after His presence and favor outside of the standard religious rituals. This often happens through worship and devotion, which Jesus encourages through seeking the Kingdom of God first (prioritizing God above everything.) Repentance is the act of turning away from sin and turning back to God. This is an important transformation that is needed to happen as a follower of God. 

As stated in this verse, when God hears this level of readiness from HIs people, He will respond accordingly. God will forgive His people’s sin, and offer restoration and restoration. Historically, forgiveness would happen through atonement via the sacrificial system. In the New Testament, the atonement was solidified through the sacrifice of Christ. God will also heal the land of His people, referring to restoration of both physical and spiritual well-being. In its ancient context, the land’s fertility and prosperity were connected to God’s blessing. We can view this as a holistic restoration, showcasing both the environmental and societal renewal. 

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What do you take away from this verse? How do you see this verse applied in your everyday life? 

The Path for Christians

This verse has a very unique place in my heart. The first time that I truly heard this voice taught was through the song “Come Together” by Rodney Jerkins (link at the end of the blog.) Kirk Franklin features on this song and used this verse at the very end, and it hit me very aggressively. The song came out on May 1, 2020 – the core of the “at-home” part of the pandemic, and this was very powerful to keep hopeful and faithful about how we progress forward. 

Keeping that in mind in regards to this verse, this impacts me differently given the entirety of the climate that we’re seeing. First and foremost, we must recognize the original audience is the Israelites, and later for Christians in the early church. It’s not a national identity. The United States is religiously plural and shouldn’t be treated as if it belongs to one Christian identity, but a melting pot of multiple identities, beliefs, and structures that attempt to merge together and reach the common good for a greater majority of humans. There’s nothing that’s perfect about it, nor are humans perfect, but to be able to use the different gifts of our backgrounds to maximize everyone’s rights to life and the accessibility to achieve those rights. A lot of what we tend to see is the white Christian nationalism pre-supposing more conservative beliefs on the greater community, which often has tendencies to suppress and remove the rights to marginalized communities. As a response, Christians can step up and step into these communities, see what needs are out there for the marginalized communities, and find ways to help obtain their needs through any means possible. 

Back to the personal aspect of this verse, the author of Chronicles lists for things that we are called to do as followers of God: humble ourselves, pray, seek God, and repent. 

Recognizing That We Cannot Do This Alone

Regarding humility, I’ve seen this be diminished because of our individualist culture that has risen over the last few years or so and the rise of social media. I have been one that has struggled to ask for help with certain tasks due to a fear of judgment or recognition of my inabilities, the stigma of not wanting to be a burden, and the push of the dopamine to do it myself. However, what I’ve learned in a lot of studies over the years is that we, as humans, were not created to do life alone. God created Eve to be a helper with the tasks that Adam was given to do. We will always need a community and/or relationships to successfully live our lives to the fullest, whether it’s romantic partners, family members, friends, found family, etc. God needs to be our first and foremost relationship, through recognizing that we need Him to guide us and lead us. God will put people in our path to fulfilling God’s will and our plan within it. 

Communicating With God

Part of how we communicate with God is through prayer. I will admit that my prayer has not been the greatest throughout my Christian journey. There have been seasons where it’s consistent, and others where it’s been quiet. Where I have landed is the quiet, short breath prayers. Something that is said in the moment. It’s not fancy, it’s not perfect, but it’s real and raw. If I can’t verbalize it, then it’s a refreshed past prayer or its scripture that comes to mind. The goal with prayer is communication and acknowledgment. While God knows what’s on my heart, God also needs to hear me say that I am ready to change things, ease my pain, lift up my burdens, and work to push forward. The other way we can communicate is through worship. When the words can’t be formed, music has been my language. I referenced the song “Come Together” earlier in this blog, and listen to some of these words:

It’s time to let them see 

We can make it if we can see 

There will be better days if we just believe

Is there anybody listening?

You gotta keep the faith 

Verses like these can communicate so much intense grief, anger, panic, frustration, and more that we see on the news and on social media. Sometimes, singing these verses can connect to inner feelings that we might not know exist within us. Truthfully, when I was preparing this blog, I relistened to the song for the first time in about 3-4 years. I teared up, and probably would have cried if I let myself go. This song brought back so many emotions and memories of what was going on in my life during the pandemic and the evolution of my ministry as we progressed back to “in-person.” Overall, worship just allows us, in my opinion, to say more than any words we can create. 

Turning Away From Past Behavior

The last thing that was mentioned is repentance. I remember when I was really learning this topic, the 231Collective (new iteration of the Skit Guys) and the Bible Project helped me understand what it means to repent. Picture a true, literal turn. That’s it. Imagine walking a path in the park. You are thinking that you are on the right path, reaching the destination you had planned to reach and getting the desired outcome of your trip. However, you may come across shortcuts and off-the-beat paths that may cut some distance off your path, but will still get you to the same results. You don’t know how taking these paths will go, but you decide to go against your better judgment of staying on the current path and take the shortcut. The shortcut may feel like it’s helping out, and working around some of the potential headaches with the journey. At the same time, you start to feel some guilt and shame from straying away from the path. Some fear works into your mind and you question whether or not to go back. You may start to shake those thoughts off. You may start to ask others about what they think. All at the same time, you forget to talk to the park owner and see what they recommend. They are the ones that manage it, create it, and oversee it, but we don’t think to include them in our conversations. We finally reach out to them, mention our concerns about the shortcut we took, apologize for straying, and ask how we can get back on the right path. They help guide us back and we continue on the path that they created for its intended purpose. I hope that imagery makes sense, but this is how repentance looks in my mind. It’s going back to the original creator of our behaviors and see how we can re-align ourselves to the proper path instead of the paths that we tended to stray down on our own. 

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What do these breakdowns of humility, communicating with God, and repentance mean to you? How do they affect your everyday life? 

Music Video: Come Together (Official Video)