“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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land’ - 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV).
In 1992 I was a member of a church that went through an acrimonious split. Prior it was a growing church with flourishing ministries spread across the city of Tulsa. But somewhere some members decided to walk out due to some issues, and the Pastor was forced to resign. This led many others who preferred the Pastor to storm out too. Before long the church had split into three congregations!
When people have been meeting regularly to fellowship they become like a family. A church split can be as devastating as a biological family that breaks up with brothers and sisters walking separate ways. It was a time of turmoil.
But just as the church was going through this turmoil, the elders did an amazing thing. They decided to set aside a time for prayer. For some months members were asked to drop by the church after work and participate in communal prayers. The elders encouraged fasting as well during the day.
As members met, repented and cried out to the Lord, this church was restored. The Lord led it miraculously to find a new Pastor; within no time he had turned it around into one of the fastest growing churches in Tulsa. Of this success one elder later told me, “we felt the split was the time to drop everything and turn to the Lord. This is how our church was saved.”
Today, there is a spirit of death passing over many nations, much a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Almost every passing moment a new death is reported. But if we can remember, once, there was a time when “the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem” (1 Chronicles 21:14). However, the Lord had mercy upon Israel, because of the prayers of his servant David and the elders. “But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand” (vv 15)
In the midst of this turmoil, the battle cry for all believers is to get out, fall on our knees, repent for the sins of the land, and cry out to the living God to hold this terror that is plucking young and old still. He is fully able.
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I fall facedown and cry out to you, in repentance of my sins and this nation, that you stay this evil hand of death passing and plucking the old and young, and that you may save the land from ruin, all this I pray in the Lord Jesus’s name!
Related upcoming events
-
29/04/2024 - 30/04/2024 All day“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27)
One of the most moving Christian song ever written is, “Its well with my soul!” To hear it sung in cathedrals, concerts or at funerals, always leaves many with goose bumps. It has uplifted many through the most difficult of moments, soothing their weary spirit.
It’s coming into being in many ways show how God so often uses difficult situations to bless so many. In 1871 Horatio Spafford, was one of the wealthiest lawyers, based in Chicago. He was also a devout Christian, along with his wife Ann, and their four daughters. But early in 1871 came the Great Fire of Chicago that destroyed Spafford’s sizable investment.
Devastated from the loss, Spafford, seeking to recover, two years later, decided to go for a holiday in Europe. But at the last minute he was detained by business, letting Ann and his four daughters to proceed, hoping to join them. No sooner had they left when the ship in which they were had an accident and sank within minutes. All the four children drowned, though Anna survived.
Spafford on receiving the news decided to go and pick up Ann. As he got to the spot where the ship had sunk, in his despair came the words that have brought respite to so many, through generations. “When peace like a river attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul... Let this blest assurance control That Christ (yes, He has) has regarded my helpless estate, And has shed His own blood for my soul. It is well...With my soul..
It is well, it is well with my soul.”It is said as Ann saw her daughters going down, she said, “God gave me four daughters. Now they have been taken from me. Someday I will understand.” And, indeed, “It is well with my soul” was God’s gift to all of mankind through a tragedy.
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of heaven, sometimes through tragedies, it is difficult to understand or appreciate the moment; but as the song goes, whatever the difficulty may be, “Its well with my soul” for you are with me, no matter! This I pray in Jesus’ name!
