"If My People"

Solomon has just finished building a “Temple to honor the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.” (2 Chronicles 6:10b) and is praying to God: “And now arise, O LORD God, and enter your resting place..” (2 Chronicles 6:41a)

When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “He is good; his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 7:3b)

The temple was complete. It was a great accomplishment of the Lord. The promise of a great temple had been fulfilled. Every part of it was filled the gold, silver, and precious jewels. No expense had been spared. Truly, at this point the people of Israel had given God the very best of what they had. Solomon and the people had dedicated the temple with great sacrifices.

God had made His presence known to all the people by filling the temple with His glory. What an awesome sight it must have been to see "the fire coming down”. (2 Chronicles 7:3a) from Heaven. The people worshipped their God and proclaimed His goodness and His enduring love.

Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. …….So the king and all the people dedicated the temple of God. (2 Chronicles 7:4-5)

All that remained was the reminder to the people. Why, because they had worshipped and dedicated themselves before. Then they would get comfortable and forget the Lord and worship other gods. The Lord would discipline them then they would repent and He would redeem them once again. The cycle was restoration, sin, judgment, repentance, and restoration.

The Lord reminded Solomon once again of some very important truths. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 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 I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

"if"

It is a conditional statement. It implies that there are options. It also means that there is a choice involved on our part. A choice by us takes an act of the will. We can either take the offer or we can refuse the offer and accept the consequences.

It is an opportunity from the Lord. He is almighty God. He does not have to offer us anything. The great part of this offer is He desires to give us a chance, an opportunity that would not be offered if it were not for Him. It is freely given with no obligation on His part.

"my people"

Don’t you love these two words. They imply a personal relationship, not ownership, but relationship. God has chosen the Israelites out of all the peoples on the earth, they are His and He is their God. Above all He desires a relationship with them.

Jesus looked down from the hills of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …… How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. (Matthew 23:37) It is a love relationship. He created us to love.

Today, Believers are His chosen people. The chosen are those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives. Again, it is a choice to accept or reject His offer of salvation. It says in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts…”

Once we receive Jesus Christ we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as God’s children. And scripture says that nothing can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38-39 says, "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Once we are His, we are His. But remember the choice? It requires an action on our part, an act of the will to choose one or the other. What is it we are to do?

"will"

If we will humble ourselves is the first step. Humility does not mean we walk around all day with our eyes to the ground or with a whip smacking ourselves on the back or allowing someone else treat us that way. It means we recognize that we are not God and in life, we are powerless to live apart from Him. We admit that we have sinned and apart from Him there is no remedy.

We are to pray. Prayer is talking, communicating with God. We recognize we can’t do anything in life apart from Him and so we turn to Him in humility. He is God, we are not. A love relationship requires constant communication, most of which is listening.

Next we seek His face. We desire to know Him on a deeper level. Statistics say 90% of Americans know about God. Today most do not seek His face nor do they desire a love relationship with Him. Why, because most of America doesn’t want to admit they are lost and in sin. And then do not want to give up “control” of their lives. Giving up this control is very difficult!

Lastly we need turn from our wicked ways. What are wicked ways? It is anyway that is not God’s way. Those are wicked ways. The people of Israel were constantly calling upon God to rescue them from their own mistakes. When He would redeem them they would worship and follow Him.....for awhile. Then they would go back to wickedness and sin and leave God out entirely. Of course, they would then get in trouble without the Lord and they would be right back to square one calling on to rescue them. Sound familiar?

Why didn’t they remain in His will? It is because "all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory". (Romans 3:23) We are just like the Israelites. When times are bad we call on His name but when times are good we often forget about Him.

God desires a love relationship in Christ. In Christ, His is with us always through the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 14:16 that “… I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.” And God says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you". (Hebrews 13:5) He will nor quit on you or me. But, we need to acknowledge by our actions that He we love Him. Jesus says, “If you love me, obey my commandments.” (John 14:15) We demonstrate our love for Him by following His word and obeying all He has commanded us.

What does God do?

"then"

First, He will be attentive. We become His object of love and caring. We receive His forgiveness, His love, His peace, His comfort, and most importantly, His grace. We literally become the Lord’s love. Think about it. The Father loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die for our sins. That is how much God loves us. He is not pursuing us to somehow get us, He is pursuing us to love us. Why so many people miserable? They won’t accept the love God. His love is the One permanent love available. All other loves may leave us. BUT, His love will never, never leave us. How do we know? He says so and He is God.

Before we come to realize we need Jesus Christ we often do a lot of damage to our life. The Lord promises to heal the land. He heals our life. He slowly changes our life for good when we begin to follow Him. He even says He will take the bad of life and change it to good. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”