Daily Verse Devo - 2 Chronicles 7:14

"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 (NLT)

This verse, out of context, is often offered as a prayer for America to turn to God. I'm going to explore that in a bit, but first, let's see the context of this passage.

As we talked about yesterday, God promised that David's son would build the temple. In this passage, Solomon has completed the temple and the Israelites have been praising God and offering sacrifices to Him in celebration.

After celebrating the dedication of the altar and the Feast of Shelters for a couple weeks, the people then returned home.

One night, the Lord appeared to Solomon. He tells him that the Temple will be God's chosen place for the people to sacrifice. I found verse 13 shocking when it said that God might allow drought or plagues. Yet, verse 14 promises that if the people humbly pray to God and repent of their wrong doing, He will forgive them and restore their land.

God also warns Solomon that if the Israelites turn to idolatry, then he will remove His presence from the Temple and his people from their land.

So can this verse apply to America?

I'd say yes... and no.

This verse was specifically for the Israelite nation, but that's not to say that Americans couldn't use a good dose of humility and prayer. God has not specifically promised to heal America if we do this, but I do believe a nation of people seeking God will be blessed.

Proverbs 14:34 (NLT) says, "Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people."

God urged His chosen nation to follow Him and promised to forgive them when they repented of their wrongs. Under the New Covenant, God forgives our sins (1 John 1:9) and we have freedom in the Spirit (Romans 8).

I do believe that God had His hands on the founding of America. Not every decision made in the USA has been honorable, but we've been blessed and prosperous when God was in first place. America is a wonderful country and despite threats to it, we still have freedom to worship God.

I think this verse can challenge us to pray for our nation and to keep our focus on God.

#solomon #nation #prayer #humility #America