“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.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“IF”, in English, almost always serves a a conjunction, the part of speech that connects 2 thoughts or sentances. In this case, God is talking to Solomon, David’s son, King of Israel. Solomon had finished construction on the temple, a huge & grand building his father, David had dreamed of! He had built a palace as well and when everything was finished, one night, God showed up in Solomon’s dream. Among other things, God said to Solomon that He had heard his prayer & that if people came to worship in this place, He would listen & respond to their prayer! God’s saying that even if “I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or send plagues among you, (Vs 13) that IF “my people who are called by my name will humble themselves & pray and seek my face & turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven & will forgive their sins & restore their land.”
What God was say was that even when times were tough & even if the sin of the people were the cause of times being tough, GOD LONGED TO HEAR & LISTEN TO HIS PEOPLE!
Hearing, listening, responding to & answering the prayers of His people, has been God’s desire all along! He WANTS to have individual and personal relationship with people. He WANTS to answer our prayers. In these verses the conjunction “IF” puts the ball in our, the people’s court! WE ARE THE ONES WHO NEED TO TAKE ACTION. WE are the ones who need to RESOND to God by HUMBLING ourselves, PRAYING, SEEKING GOD and
TURNING AWAY from evil! IF we respond, then He’ll hear, forgive & restore!
God is calling . . . who knows what incrediable things might happen if we hear and respond to Him!? (And we say we’re waiting on Him to answer? Maybe He’s waiting on us!)
Think about it!
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