Thought for the Week

Scriptures to Read:

Exodus 10:1-3 & 12:29-31

Deuteronomy 8:1-6

II Chronicles 34:21-28

St. Matthew 18:1-4

St. Matthew 23:1-12

I Peter 5:1-8

II Chronicles 12:1-7

Ever since the 9/11 crisis America faced, there has been one verse that seems to surface with frequency. It is II Chronicles 7:14: "If my people who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land." It is a very powerful verse and promise from God to King Solomon.

God knew people would sin. He would need to punish them for that sin. There were several ways God would provide that punishment. Whenever it came and the people began to realize they had indeed sinned and they desperately needed God to deliver them. So, God gives this formula for forgiveness to Solomon. Of course we are not Solomon's subjects but I trust we can claim to be God's people. If that is indeed true, I believe we dare to lay claim to God's formula for forgiveness and His promise as well.

The first requisite is for us to humble ourselves. Dr. David Jeremiah has excellent suggestions taken from James Chapter 4: 1. Relinquish control of your life: "Submit yourself to God." People who are in charge have difficulty being humble but people who have no control know their more lowly condition and may be humbled by it. 2. "Resist the Devil." We can know him as a terrible enemy desperately desiring to destroy us. In humility we need to cry out to God to overcome him on our behalf. 3. Restore our worship to a priority. "Draw nigh to God." As baby chicks need the warmth or a mother hen or brooder, so we need to get close and snuggle up to God lest we and our love for Him grows cold. People of Ephesus have been warned by Christ they have left their first love and because of it they were in danger of losing their place in Heaven with Christ.

4. Renounce sinful actions. "Cleanse your hands." At camp the camp nurse was at the door to the lunch room to check us for clean hands. It was a pretty humbling experience to be rejected and have to climb the hill to the rest room and wash before being admitted for lunch. God most certainly wants us to be clean of heart. 5. Reject sinful attitudes. "Purify your hearts." We can't do it on our own. Again we need to humbly cry out to God to forgive and cleanse us. 6. React to sin with sorrow. "Be afflicted and mourn and weep." When we recognize or remember what we lose without God gives valid burden for sorrow.

7. Refrain from frivolous attitude toward evil. "Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." Sin seems to bring pleasure for a moment but in the end it becomes bitter and painful. We can see this all around us in people who live for this world's pleasures but are not rich toward God. 8. Respond humbly toward success. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord." We have no gain of our own effort or merit. All our blessings and successes come from God and are all His doing because He loves us. 9.Refuse to slander your fellow Christian. "Speak no evil one of another, brethren." If we say we love God whom we have not seen, how could we not love our brothers and sisters we see and live with every day. That would be inconsistent. We want them to love us and if they do, we expect they would say no evil or unkind thing about us. We know how to act and when we fail we should be humbled by it.

We are warned: "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). Pharaoh refused to humble himself before God and obey Him and it cost him terribly. Don't be like Pharaoh.