Solomon's Bold Prayer for the Church

In a time when the American church is lost and trying to find its way, when her attendance numbers fall steadily, her influence in society greatly diminished, and her own people following their own desires and doing what they think is right; it would be good for the church to remember the words of Solomon as he prayed at the dedication of the Temple he built for God.  He was dedicating a place for God to dwell with His people.  

Our church is in a 40-day prayer challenge and last week it was challenged to pray a bold, brave prayer.  I believe that Solomon has a great example here of such a prayer for a church to pray.  

2 Chronicles 6:18-40 -

¹⁸ “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built! ¹⁹ Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: ²⁰ that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. ²¹ And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.

²² “If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, ²³ then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

²⁴ “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, ²⁵ then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶ “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, ²⁷ then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; ²⁹ whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: ³⁰ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), ³¹ that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

³² “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; ³³ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.

³⁴ “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, ³⁵ then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶ “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; ³⁷ yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’; ³⁸ and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: ³⁹ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. ⁴⁰ Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.

Re-Potting Your Life

I actually enjoy gardening.  I’m just not very good at it.  It is satisfying to me to see plants neatly arranged, growing healthily and providing their flowers and fruits (or vegetables).  My grandfather was a gardener as a hobby, probably because he grew up as a farmer by necessity.  He enjoyed grafting different plants onto one another.  He always had a greenhouse and had different flowering cactuses. 

The reason I’m not good at gardening is I don’t seem to ever have time for it.  Maybe we have too many other hobbies to find time for it.  I do know that dirt is really important.  The soil must be fertile otherwise it will be really difficult for a plant to grow well.  The healthier the soil and replenished it is, the better the plant grows.  Here in Florida, the soil is terrible.  There is a reason no one settled here except in the last 100 years.  The soil is sand with a little bit of dirt mixed in.  It’s not good for growing food.

The Lord started what a man once referred to me as “an experiment with man gone wrong” in a garden.  (I find that view incredibly hopeless.  If I am an experiment, then what purpose is in that.  God says He created everyone for His purposes.)  Genesis 2:8-9,15 tells us, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.  And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.  The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  …  Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” (NKJV) 

Mankind started in a garden and it was his responsibility to tend it and keep it.  In that garden was good and evil.  Every day, from the beginning, mankind has had a choice in whether to choose the instructions of God and live life walking with Him, or to choose against the instructions of God and die.  Every man has chosen to die, except Jesus.  Jesus came in the flesh (1 John 4:2) and did not sin (1 Peter 2:22).  He chose to live, yet He died so that all who had chosen to die could choose to live again.

Like a potted plant that must be re-potted so there is new nourishing soil for the plant to thrive, we need to be re-potted in fresh nourishing Words of God.  A warning to this is noted in Job 8:13-19: “Blossoming flowers look great before they’re cut or picked, but without soil or water they wither more quickly than grass.  That’s what happens to all who forget God — all their hopes come to nothing.  They hang their life from one thin thread, they hitch their fate to a spider web.  One jiggle and the thread breaks, one jab and the web collapses.  Or they’re like weeds springing up in the sunshine, invading the garden, spreading everywhere, overtaking the flowers, getting a foothold even in the rocks.  But when the gardener rips them out by the roots, the garden doesn’t miss them one bit.  The sooner the godless are gone, the better; then good plants can grow in their place.” (MSG)

Have you forgotten God today?  “No” you say?  Was there a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are today?  Almost everyone I know will answer yes to that question.  If so, what have you forgotten about God today? 

Make specific and intentional steps to revive your heart and return to the intimacy you have had with God before.  “Re-pot” yourself into new soil.  Establish new habits and new prayers.  Find someone to hold you accountable to read God’s Word.  Choose to live again.