How To Receive God's Best Blessings, part 1

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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:13-14

I think of this passage as a seven-fold prayer. In actuality, it is God responding to King Solomon's prayer to Him upon the dedication of the magnificent temple the king had built in Jerusalem. What we find in this message from God are three amazing promises dependent upon our meeting four conditions.  If you're like me, I go quickly to the promises of God and may skip or skim lightly over the conditions and requirements. And that's not good.  In this passage, God is instructive by spelling out the conditions first, then making the promises. 

Let's examine this message over the next several blogs. No matter what you may be going through in your life, no matter how difficult a situation may be, no matter how tough the time, how hard the struggle, how challenging the relationship, no matter how long it's been going on, if you are called by His name, Christian, then pay attention to these conditions or prerequisites. 

Condition number one, humble yourself.  And what does that mean you may be thinking?  Humble comes from a Hebrew word meaning to be subdued, brought down low, brought into subjection, not proud or pretentious.  Romans 12:3 reminds us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought. If a biblical example would help your understanding, then consider Moses, referred to by God as the most humble... meek...gentle ... kind man on earth (see Numbers 12:3).

Humble yourself.  Can you?  Will you? Remember, if you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten.  Make the change.  Do it.  Humble yourself.