After dramatically inaugurating worship at the new temple with fire from heaven, God appeared to Solomon in the dark of night. The Lord heard Solomon’s prayers and promised to bless, as long as Solomon remained faithful.

Even in the hardest times, the Lord reminded Solomon to not lose faith, but to turn back to God.

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 I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

There’s no magic formula to elicit the Lord’s actions on our behalf. But in his words we see the prerequisites. First, it requires humility. All throughout the scriptures the Lord blesses the humble. The proud need not apply.

Then we see the need to pray and seek the Lord’s face, to go before the Lord on our knees. This process requires perseverance, for the Lord’s timing rarely matches our own. He’s concerned about our strength of character rather than our convenience.

Finally, the Lord demands us to turn from wicked ways. Not veer slightly, but U-turn back toward him. Repent is the old word, meaning we return to the Lord sorry for our actions and ready to change. One simply cannot continue in sin and hope for the grace of God to increase.

The Lord spoke of the newly blessed temple in Jerusalem: Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

May the same be true of the places we worship, as we tame our haughty spirits, return from our wayward actions and seek the Lord’s face.

2 Chronicles 7 in reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Jonas Gerlach