Wednesday night at church our pastor spoke on the topic, “The Requirements for Healing” using 2 Chronicles 7 as the scripture reference, verse 14 as the focal verse. As God’s children we must humble ourselves, seek God’s face and repent. IF we do this, God will hear our pray, forgive, and provide healing.
The promise
of the blessing, healing, is conditional upon, humility, seeking God, and
repentance. We must not expect the fulfillment of the promise if the conditions
of the promise are not met. And yet, many times, pridefully, we do, and then we
obstinately wonder, what went wrong. However, genuine humility, heartfelt
repentance, and total surrender, and thus obedience to God’s will and way in
our lives are absolutely essential to our daily walk of faith.
In humbling
ourselves before God there must be a stripping away of all that which is not
useful—that which we have stubbornly clung to in pride. Pride is the enemy that
attempts to elevate humanity to the level of God; but instead it is the cause
of the disastrous and ruinous fall of man, (Isaiah 14:12-15). Pride, the best
tool in Satan’s bag of tricks, (followed closely by doubt) has been used from
the beginning to cause mankind to stumble.
Recall the
serpent’s words to Eve, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1) and further, “Your
eyes will be opened and you will be like God,” (v. 5). Hence, pride is a snare
for us and will continue to be so this side of eternity.
Luke 9:23,
Jesus speaking, says, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself,
take up his cross daily, and follow me. To me, this says the stripping away of
our personal pride must be a daily act of obedience. This is Christ’s call to
us as Christians for total surrender in following Him.
Friends do
not be discouraged; no matter how big our pride may be, God’s grace is always bigger!
Praise God for His infinite, all-sufficient grace. James tells us in chapter 4,
verses 6 and 7, that God “gives greater grace...God resists the proud, but
gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God.” Further, “Draw near to God,
and He will draw near to you…Purify your hearts,” v. 8; and finally, “Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you,” v. 10.
In closing,
I’ll leave you with these words penned by Julia H. Johnston, in the early 1900’s:
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord; Grace
that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within; Grace that is greater than all our sin!
Marvelous,
infinite, matchless grace; freely bestowed on all who believe!
God Bless!
*HCSB used unless otherwise stated.
