“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).
Prayer can do amazing things. Once there was a certain church that went through an acrimonious split. Before it was a growing church with flourishing ministries spread across the city. 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 is 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, just 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 the city. Of this success one elder later said, “we felt the split was the time to drop everything and turn to the Lord. This is how our church was saved.”
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 any turmoil, personal or national, the battle cry for all believers is to get out, fall on their knees, and cry out to the living God for mercy.
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I fall facedown and cry out to you that through your mercy you restore anything amiss, this I pray in the Lord Jesus’s name!
Related upcoming events
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06/05/2024 - 07/05/2024 All day“Do not confirm to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2)
Almost all cultivators are aware that if soils are used perpetually without rains but constantly under work they are deprived of all nutrients. So, though once productive, they lose all power to yield fresh crops as before. But so is our Christian life when we do not regularly feed our spirit life with the Word!
In our leading verse, the Apostle Paul is urging believers to “renew” their minds rather than make them stale, lest they end up losing all power to yield fruit. But how is this done? We renew our minds by constantly reading the Word of God, for there are always insights with God speaking to us afresh. Psalm 119:104-5 says, “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” The Apostle Peter reminds us, “Like newborn babies hungry for milk, you should want the pure teaching that feeds your spirit. With it you can grow and be saved.” It is a beautiful illustration for any who have seen a hungry baby sucking the teats of a mother.
Renewing our minds is also by reading about the lives of people of faith who have walked before us and their created works. The Christian faith started in the first century after Jesus was crucified and resurrected from the dead. Now over two millenniums it has produced giants of faith who have shared their walk with God through inspired teachings that are a treasure to dig into. By scouring the writings of the great saints before us, listening to their recorded sermons, songs and preaching, which these days can be found on virtual medial channels like Yu tube, reading their biographies, our faith is renewed.
And then we also renew our faith through fellowship. When the Apostle Paul urges us, “not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” ( Hebrews 10:25), he is reminding us that our faith cannot grow in isolation. During the Covid pandemic lockdown one bitter issue was denying Believers opportunity to meet fellow followers of Christ to share testimonies showing the work of God in their lives.
So today, if your faith is on a low keel, or you want it to flower, one thing you can’t help doing without is “renewing” your mind. The blessings to unfold are endless.
Prayer for today:Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, what a treasure we have of your rich Word to dig into always; books around us of faith to inspire us; and believers to share our faith- may we make use of these, this I pray in Jesus’ name.
