Daily Devotion, April 19, 2023

 

Devotion:

Read 2 Chronicles 7:14.

God is seeking to restore and renew the covenant which the people had broken. They had stopped worshiping God and had begun building altars and worshiping false gods.

Solomon rebuilds the temple and offers unto God a prayer of dedication in 2 Chronicles 6:12-42. His prayer is followed by God’s response here in 2 Chronicles 7:14. This is God’s beautiful calling of love, grace, and mercy unto the people for renewal of the covenant which God had initiated with the previous generations.

“If my people, who are called by my name”…this is a tender calling to not just one individual, but to a people group who in the past realized they were called by God and whose identification was with God’s name. God is reminding the people, “We are in covenant together.” There is a strong sense of “belonging” here which they had forgotten when they began worshiping other false gods.

How is the covenant restored? God calls for the people to “humble themselves”. This is recognition that they are not God and to realize that everything they have received are gifts from God.

God calls for the people to “pray and to seek God’s face”. Ponder this moment of reconciliation of the relationship being restored for conversations and worship again, to seek God’s will, to seek God’s ways, and for the people to allow God to lead them again! There is hope and new life!

God calls for the people to “turn from their wicked ways”. Humility is the attitude, and then this phrase creates the action of turning to seek God’s face. The people have forgotten who they belong to! Their wicked ways have served their own selfish desires and they have sinned against God, their neighbors and the land.

Out of God’s love for the people, the natural response is God’s offering of forgiveness and the blessing given to the land. The land will flourish again as it receives the rains needed to be healed. And the people will have the blessing of being reconciled with the living God whose love and mercy endures forever.

Personal Worship Option:

God’s tender call continues. “If you, my people, who are called by my name, will humble yourselves and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive your sin and will heal your land.” How will we respond?