Humility, Repentance and Prayer
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 7:11-14
Following is an excerpt from my latest book The Point: Journey to Life. The text is copied from Chapter 12, God’s Promises About Prayer.
Qualities Relating to the Person Who Prays
People who live in relationship with God pray. Communication leads to and strengthens relationship. Scripture explains this in several different ways. It connects the concepts of abiding in God and allowing Him to abide in us with prayer. Loving God and obeying His commands are connected to effective prayer, as are humility and the pursuit of God. If our relationship with Him is such that we pray according to His will, our prayers will be effective. Similarly, Scripture discusses the desire to know God, the righteousness, faith and belief of the person who prays as significant parts of the formula for healthy prayer.
Humility, Repentance & Seeking God
One recipe for prayer that leads to God’s tangible, physical blessing is provided in 2 Chronicles. After constructing the Temple, King Solomon dedicated it to God. Solomon offered 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats to God. As He prayed, fire came down from heaven consuming the offerings and sacrifices, and God’s glory filled the Temple. The festival lasted 7 days. After everyone went home, God appeared to King Solomon and said:
“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 7:11-14
In our wildest imagination we cannot begin to comprehend God. God is infinite yet intimate. He is the all-powerful creator of all things yet merciful, compassionate and kind. He created the heavens so large that we measure distances in light years – the distance that light travels in a year – yet He longs for relationship with us. If we imagine His grandeur, His almighty power, His capacity for patience, His discerning mind, His knowledge, our wildest imagination falls short of who He is. How great is our God? He is greater than we can possibly know.
God is sovereign and in control. In the passage above, God explains that at times He allows suffering to encourage repentance, humility and hearts seeking Him. As discussed in the context of Paul and the disciples in the previous chapter, God’s blessings may lead to conceit, pride and arrogance, so God may allow troubling situations to encourage humility.
Here, God explains that He desires people who genuinely seek Him, and He provides a prayer recipe. First, the recipe is offered to God’s people – people who are called by God’s name. Second, His people need to humble themselves. Third, they need to pray. Fourth, they need to seek God. Fifth, they need to repent, which means to stop doing wicked things and to turn from the wicked things they have already done. In response, God will forgive their sin and provide physical blessing upon them.
He desires His followers to live in such a way that other people know they are His. He wants us to be called by His name. He desires that we publicly advertise ourselves as His people. If you follow Jesus Christ, consider for a moment how other people know this about you. What is it that causes other people to call you by His name?
In the passage above, do you see how God draws a distinction between praying and seeking Him? They are two separate statements, indicating it is possible to pray without sincerely seeking Him. This is analogous to talking with someone but not really paying attention to the conversation – talking with your spouse while reading the paper or looking at your cell phone or watching television. Conversation without genuine presence is not really a conversation. In the same way, God instructs us to pray with genuine presence; He instructs us to pray and seek.
The recipe discusses humility and repentance. Both are spiritual qualities revealing themselves through action. God calls us to pray, seek, be humble, repent and to live our lives in such a way that we are known as His people. He also promises to be with humble people. The prophet Isaiah writes,
For this is what the high and lofty One says – he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I will live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15
The Hebrew word translated as contrite is transliterated as dakka. It means crushed into a powder.[i] Figuratively, it combines notions of humility and repentance. God, the high and holy One, the Almighty, the Infinite promises to be with people who are crushed. This is virtually identical to Jesus’ promise in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). God promises to deliver His kingdom to the poorest of the poor in spirit, and to be with those who are crushed, humble and repentant. And when people who are with Him pray, He hears and responds.
[i] Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, 1793 – Dakka, http://biblehub.com/hebrew/1793.htm