Thought for the Week

Last week we celebrated National Day of Prayer. Hopefully, you were able to attend some sort of prayer rally. I am reminded there is a passage in Scripture that says God is wearied by the many words of His people. Please read Malachi 2:17 and consider it. Another Scripture tells us we should “Pray without ceasing.” (Please read I Thessalonians 5:17 and consider it.) Now we believe Scripture does not contradict itself. But these two passages give us pause. Why was God wearied by the prayers of His people? Perhaps it was their tone of voice when they prayed. It certainly seems they were not making true judgments. What God calls evil, His people must also call evil. Yet they were not doing so. I will not push the thought so far as to say the people were evil, but what they said was. It is not a great leap of understanding to say that if a person thinks evil and speaks evil, his heart is in desperate need of change. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) “…for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” (St. Matthew 12:34) Let’s look for a moment at our world/society today: We seem to think that if we change terminology and give words a different meaning, we have changed reality. We call adultery “an affair.” We call abortion “choice.” We call theft “misappropriation of funds.” I don’t need to go farther, you get the point. But perhaps we need to carry out some self-examination. I have heard people say (or at least attempt to pray) “God bless America.” Now those are wonderful words, I say them, pray them and want them myself. But some of the people who say them do not seem to have any relationship to God. How can they presume to ask a request/favor from God? Scripture is clear in multiple places that God is willing to bless His people but there are terms and conditions to those blessings. God’s people are expected to obey Him. God chose Israel and blest them abundantly. But when they turned away from Him, they were punished. It should not have come as a surprise. God had plainly told them that He would bless them if they obeyed Him. We should expect the counter is true also. But just in case people did not figure it out, God plainly told them that if they disobeyed He would punish them. He would take away their blessings. He even described how. He would send pestilence, He would send enemies, He would send famine, and there were other ways God would withdraw His blessings. One primary Scripture we should consider is II Chronicles 7:14: If we want to claim it as a promise verse for America, we must apply the whole verse (and in fact the background Scriptures as well): If my people, who are called by My Name, (are we His people, do claim His Name for ourselves?) shall humble themselves (are we a humble people?) and pray (do we truly pray or simply repeat words that sound like prayer?), and seek My Face (do we want to see God’s face – and – if we do, what do we expect His expression to be? Angry? Sad,?), {but I think the biggest focus has to be and turn from their wicked ways…) I truly believe every house of worship in this country should be filled with repentant people multiple times each week, if we are to have any hope of God’s blessings. Agree???

Scriptures to Read

II Chronicles 7:12-18

II Chronicles 7:15-22

Deuteronomy 5:1-22

Deuteronomy 5:23-32

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Deuteronomy 6:10-25

St. Matthew 23:23