Heartbeat

This has been an amazing year so far. There are things that I never thought I would experience – both good and bad. There have been times of anxiety as to what is going to happen next or how to plan my life and that of my family. And there have been times of joy and breakthrough. Throughout this time there have been a couple of  scriptures that have continually been on my heart. There is the one of course that says “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 forgive their sin and heal their land. ” 2 Chronicles 7:14

This of course is a well used scripture in times of trouble because Christians are often wringing their hands at what to do. What action do we take? Well, we pray. But is that really enough? But if you look at that particular scripture there are actually several calls to action. The first is that we humble ourselves. What does it mean to humble ourselves? It means to not pray out of fear or worry or anxiety or anger. It means to pray God’s agenda not ours. He is so longing to partner with us in this endeavor but we do not see the whole picture. The only one that sees the whole picture is God. We have to humble ourselves and say okay Lord, I absolutely do not know what is going on right now. I do know I have a ton of emotions about it though so please help me to lay all those emotions at your feet and come into close contact with your heart so that I can pray your heart for this situation. I think that moves into the second action step which is seek my face. Once we quiet our minds and our spirits then we can seek his face and hear his heart. Once that happens we may hear some things we need to repent of. Some things we may not have classified as wicked but anything apart from God is considered wicked. The good news: He instantly forgives us and covers the sin. Then we can hear from heaven, partner with God and He will forgive our sins and heal our land. Isn’t that what we want? Our land healed. We can all look out and see where sin and corruption has taken a foothold in almost every arena of life. We are probably not aware of how deep it goes. However, God places a strong and important emphasis on prayer. In Romans 8 it says that Jesus is seated and enthroned at God’s right hand and is continually praying for our triumph. Jesus is praying for our triumph!!! How amazing is that? Jesus, the very person who sacrificed himself to save us did not go back to heaven to relax with a job well done. He is sitting next to God himself praying for us. That is incredible!

I definitely believe in the power of prayer and that our call to action is prayer. I think it should be the first thing we do not the last. Out of that prayer time may be other things God asks us to do. However, we have to hear his heart on the situation first instead of assuming we know his heart. And I believe that if Jesus is sitting next to God praying for us then we should understand how powerful a tool prayer is.