From time to time I get email and other information from friends and others encouraging me to take this political position or giving me information about a political personality with the apparent hope of gaining my support for one idea or another. I have thought some about this and would like to stick in an idea that I haven’t heard in a long time.
I believe political action is necessary, but, as I have said, it may be a little different action than some have considered.
A few years ago there was an evangelist going around the country holding tent meetings and bringing people to the Lord. His ministry had as a motto, II Chronicles 7:14. This verse is an outline with guaranteed result of the political action I would suggest.
It often seems that many renderings of Scripture seem elementary and simplistic, almost juvenile. But I think I’ll take the risk since, as I said, I haven’t heard anyone suggest this strategy in a long time.
2Ch 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, shall 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.
Just to break it down:
“My people, who are called by my name”. Most of the time when I hear about political action, it involves causing other people, by some means or another, to take an action that “we, conservative Christians” think THEY need to take. This plan of action, on the other hand, is directed directly at me.
Each aspect of the action required and stated in this verse is deadly serious and should be considered carefully and individually. I am not a theologian or anything like that, but I have a little light and believe I should let that shine and then others may add their light and we can get a pretty good fire going.
The first aspect that hits me in the face is “humble themselves”. There are many verses about this and you can get out your concordance and see that God seems pretty serious about this part of our development as children of God. For me, it seems that every time I turn around, I find some new area where I am proud or guided by self will. To humble myself simply stated seems to mean that I see that the actions I have been taking up to now have not worked out so well (really badly actually). This naturally leads me to the next aspect of the plan. James 4:10
“And pray.” Wow! This is such a huge area, and I am such a novice here. It seems that it may be significant that this is the second step, right after “humbling myself”. I am so full of ideas of stuff to do, that these first steps often seem to get sent to the back of the bus, and then never get done.
“And seek my face.” This seems to me to be instruction for the “and pray” part. When I was a boy, church would usually start with some powerful anthem (“Holy, Holy, Holy””Great is Thy Faithfulness””Amazing Grace” etc). The organist would have all the stops out on the pipe organ and we all sang with all we had in us. Then Mr. Wilson would pray. I always felt like I had been escorted into the very presence of God. If nothing else happened of note in the church service, that, by itself, was an amazing experience. So often when we pray it seems that we are simply reading our list to the furniture. I need to spend more time seeking God’s face. I have experienced that this is a very effective strategy for prayer.
“And turn from their wicked ways.” This gives me something to actively do. It doesn’t involve anyone but me. Someone may say “We’re saved by grace not by works.” I hope you are not using that as an excuse to ignore most of the teachings of the New Testament. God’s Word is full of admonitions to “mortify the flesh””be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect””love one another” and many, many more. If I am working to fulfill the parts of this verse that have come before, I will have no problem finding areas that Our Father wants to work in my life to cleanse and purify. I do have work to do!
At this point I come to the guarantee. God says, “I will hear from heaven, and forgive their sin, and heal their land.” Is the political condition of this country in turmoil? Is the economy upside down? Are the morals of this country in the toilet? Does this land need supernatural healing? Does anyone really have a plan with a better guarantee?
We all have so much to do and so little time, but I believe this may be the very most important thing in all of our lives, not just for the United States, but more importantly for the salvation of men and women all around us.
Matt 5:16
