Humble Pie

"...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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14

I can't tell you how many times I have seen this verse in the last five or six years. I have taught on it, I have seen others teach on it. It has become a catch-phrase for prayer groups seeking to restore God to our nation. It has practically become the slogan for the Evangelical political movement. It is a rallying cry of our nation's Christians to save our country from moral depravity.

We have all missed the point.

It is often read as though our nation must repent. In other words, "All those people screwing it up for the rest of us need to fix yourselves." We say this verse as though it is about someone else. It can't be me that needs to humble myself, clearly. I mean, I'm the one quoting this verse for crying out loud. We seem to have selective reading skills and we only see "...if my people, who are called by my name, will pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." Our lives reflect that there is something missing in our view of this verse.

It is easy to point the finger at others who are sinning. Look, there is a liar, there is a thief, there is an adulterer- they need to repent. They are the problem. If people would only come to Jesus we could have a Christian nation again. But if we who claim to follow Christ are also sinners, do we not also need to repent?

Where is our humility? Where is our turning from wicked ways? We set ourselves on a moral high horse, we have Christ so we are better and thus better equipped to save our country. No, we are not able to save our country- Jesus is. We are nothing apart from Him. We have no righteousness, no goodness apart from Christ. But we sure think we do.

I constantly see Christians breaking the rules they think are stupid. Just this morning I saw a personalized plate that said "BSAVD" as it continually changed lanes without signaling. I have been to volunteer move in events for the freshmen here at A&M where everyone is asked to wear a specific shirt for safety and insurance reasons, but here comes a church group wearing their own stuff- disregarding the rules. I myself have been guilty of breaking the rules in the name of Christ- not because I felt the law violated the law of God, but because it was easier than following the rules.

We have grown arrogant- I have lacked humility. And that doesn't even begin to get into how we fail to turn from our wicked ways. We yell from the rooftops the evils of homosexuality and abortion, but in the eyes of God it is just as wrong for us to ignore the needs of the poor person next door or the brokenhearted person next to us in class. We think we are better, we think we are not wicked.

If we want to see God move in our nation- heck, even move in our churches- we must INDIVIDUALLY seek to turn from our wickedness and seek humility. If we are God's people, if we have taken His name, WE must humble ourselves and seek His face, and turn from OUR wicked ways. The focus on the verse is not on what needs to happen with others, but what needs to change in us.

We must transition from thinking of our superiority to thinking of our lowness. Not a depressed, I am awful and useless lowness, but a lowness in respect to God. A lowness in respect to others. Even the least of people should be viewed as a greater treasure than ourselves. Paul said he would be cut off from Christ if it meant his fellow Jews could know Him. I am not important- others are.

If we begin to view ourselves with humility, we see that we are flawed. IF we see that we are flawed, we see the ways to to correct those flaws. We must be broken, we must realize where we fall short, and we must seek God for our restoration.

That is really what 2 Chronicles 7:14 is about. Personal repentance, part of our transition from unbelieving to faithful. We will not see change in our own lives, let alone our nation, until we humble ourselves before God.