Prayer Challenge - Be Encouraged

One week into this prayer challenge, this is the verse I was led to:

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

Our land in this instance is our church and specifically the people in the church.  Our church is sick.  The remedy is to humble ourselves, pray, seek God, and repent (turn) from our sins.  I believe a significant portion of our church is praying, but I’m not sure they are humble before God putting His will ahead of their own or seeking God (I am a pessimist too often so hopefully many more are than I am aware).  The bigger question is am I sincerely humbling myself before God, am I diligently praying, am I seeking God, and am I turning from my sin.  I want to say yes, but I always feel as though there is more in each of these areas I can seek out and pursue.  My hope is to see the church seeking out and pursuing each of these, as I am never sure we can perfect each discipline.

As I have continued in prayer the leading has led to purity.

⁵ This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  ⁸ If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:5-9

Is God telling me He wants to purify the church?  I assume so.  I take this personally to mean that when I see impurity, such as the words from people that have been said, it is incumbent to hold those people accountable to what spirit is leading them. 

Once I got over the shock of what had been said, I then felt God leading me to rejoice.  I know, it made no sense to me either, until God said “Look, I am revealing where to work.”  We’ve walked around scratching our heads for many years wondering what to do about our dying church and now we can see.  We are to be encouraged today!  Let us be more than grieved in our heart for people living in the world but walking in the church but celebrating that the prayers to God are being answered and He is working.  The refining fire of God is on and the impurities are coming to the top.  We should rejoice in that and be anxious to see what’s next!  Oh Lord, make the fire hotter still!

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. – 1 Peter 1:6-7

May we be willing to follow God, even when we dread the confrontation that is necessary or the work in patience to tolerate another useless conversation, so He may be praised, glorified and honored when He is revealed.