What Happens When We Seek God?

2 Chronicles 7:14

Have you ever noticed that in every recorded instance when an individual discovers himself in the presence of the Living God, in the presence of the Lord of Glory, or even in the presence one of the angels on a mission of heaven, that the natural response of the individual is to fall down awe-struck?  If God is infinite, holy, dwelling in unapproachable light, such a reaction is not surprising.  The Risen Christ has likewise been transfigured and now reveals Himself whenever He comes to His people with unveiled glory.  Thus, the reaction of terror is not surprising.  Even the angels of God are represented as flames of fire, and thus the reaction to finding oneself in the unveiled presence of such a powerful being is terror.

The reason I mention this common reaction is to challenge us to consider carefully whether we want revival or not.  I confess that I long for revival; but knowing something of Holy God, I approach this request with a sense of terror.  How could it be otherwise in approaching One of whom every human description fails?  God can only be described from my human perspective as “Other.”  Should He not reveal Himself, how would I search Him out?  In mercy and by His grace, however, He has revealed Himself to each of us who are called by His Name, and we, in seeking revival, ask Him to reveal His full glory to us.

What happens when we seek God?  Perhaps the answer is given in part by the reaction of the three disciples who walked with Jesus to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration.  Matthew’s account reads as follows.  After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.  There he was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.  Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here.  If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said,

“"This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.  But Jesus came and touched them.  “Get up,” he said.  “Don't be afraid.”  When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus [Matthew 17:1-8].

The immediate reaction to the presence of God is awe; those recognising His glory are struck dumb and left without strength.  John once more saw the glorified Christ when in exile on Patmos.  You will recall that his reaction was akin to that of Daniel in the presence of the archangel Michael: I fell at his feet as though dead [Revelation 1:17].  This common reaction being true, do we really want to see His glory in the church [Ephesians 3:21]?  Are we really willing to be controlled by One utterly foreign to our experience?  Will we truly permit this “Other” to direct our lives?  When we seek God, this is the outward experience of the saints.  However, there is another aspect of being in the presence of God which is nearer our expectation and which is revealed in our text today.  Join me in exploration of the elements of seeking—and finding—the Lord God.

God Hears Prayer — If my people … will … seek my face … then will I hear from heaven.  This is the first promise God gave His ancient people through Solomon.  Consequently, we do no violence to the text when we appropriate this text to ourselves.  And what a glorious assertion this is—that God hears prayer.  There is no other god who hears and answers prayer, though man has repeatedly attempted to produce formulae to manipulate authorities and powers to do his will.  The Living God, alone, hears prayer.  Of all the prayers God hears, the prayer of repentant saints is most assured to receive His prompt attention.  God ever delights to receive that soul who seeks His face.

You will perhaps recall the promise given through the letter to Hebrew believers.  In Hebrews 11:6 we are informed: without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  Those earnestly seeking God are promised His reward.  Again, we believers have received His rich promise given in 1 John 1:9: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  These are rich promises which speak of God’s delight to reward the seeking heart, and the reward given is God Himself.

I am compelled to encourage prayer by reminding you of some of the great promises from God’s Word.  In my previous message I reminded you of Jeremiah 33:3: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.  Children of the Living God have also received the repeated promise of our Lord: I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father…  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.  Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…  In that day you will no longer ask me anything.  I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name [John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23].  This singular promise which is repeated three times to the disciples is but an iteration of that promise which was given early in Jesus’ ministry during the Sermon on the Mount.  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you [Matthew 7:7].  Prayer will assuredly be heard, and how much more will that prayer be heard when the prayer offered finds its origin in the heart of God’s repentant child.

God does hear prayer.  Most of us are convinced that this is a true statement.  However, we appear reluctant to pray—if our prayers are any indication of our belief!  How can this be?  I suppose there are a variety of reasons we could give as to why we do not pray, but the bottom line is that we are a sinful people.  Though forgiven and called into the Family of God by His grace, we are yet in the flesh and thus we struggle against our own fallen natures.  Consequently, we imagine that we are capable of resolving any conflict, we think ourselves too busy to pray, or we realise that true prayer will require confession of sin and we rebel at the thought of such acknowledgement.  It is our pride which keeps us from praying as we ought.

All these statements are true in greater or lesser measure, but I wonder if perhaps we sometimes are uncertain how to pray.  The disciples asked Jesus on one occasion: Lord, teach us to pray [Luke 11:1].  It is uncertain whether they were asking Jesus to teach them the mechanics of prayer or whether they sought to learn the discipline of prayer, but from the Lord’s response it seems that they were actually inquiring about the mechanisms of prayer.  What is prayer?  What sort of prayer honours the Father?  What are the elements of true prayer?  This is the underlying concern of these disciples.

I will not attempt a thorough exegesis of this prayer at this time, but I will observe that several elements stand out in the prayer which are instructive to each of us.  The first element of note in prayer is the intimacy with which a disciple is to approach the Father.  We call Him Father.  There is no hint of manipulation or attempt at coercion, but instead there is an easy entrance into the presence of One who is loved and who loves.

The second element of note in this model prayer is the adoration or worship with which we should approach the Father.  God is so beyond us that were He to truly reveal His glory we would each be struck dumb!  We would be awed into silence.  What familiarity may be exhibited toward God results from His grace and not from our merit.  If we adopt this model prayer as the guide for our own prayers—as we should—we will never again barge into the presence of the Father without a time of worship or adoration.  Consequently, prayer life will be transformed forever after.

The third element of prayer noted in the Model Prayer is supplication—prayer.  Prayer is to include prayer, petition, asking.  However, I caution that the asking, while benefiting the petitioner, always seeks God’s glory whether in seeking His provision for daily needs, forgiveness of sin, or deliverance from evil.

I have often employed the little acronym ACTS as an aid to guide my prayer life.  A reminds me of the need for adoration.  C reminds me that I have need for confession.  T is a reminder of the need for thanksgiving.  S reminds me of the need for supplication.  Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication are elements of prayer acceptable to the Father.  As we begin to pray it is good to take time to first adore the Lord our God—to worship Him first.  Knowing who He is, we are then conscious of our own sinful nature and we can confess that which He brings to our mind.  Because we are confident that He shall forgive sin which is confessed to Him we are prepared to engage in thanksgiving.  Then, and only then, save in rare instances, are we prepared to make our requests of Him; and these requests ought to be carefully considered to ensure that they are those which glorify Him and honour His Son according to His promises.

When we seek God, we know that He hears our prayer.  If we are unable to point to answered prayer, it must follow that we are the ones in error.  Either we have not prayed (as James states in James 4:2: You do not have, because you do not ask God) or we have asked with wrong motives (as is likewise made abundantly clear in James 4:3: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures).  I suggest that for far too many of us prayer is unimportant because we have become so caught up in our own private worlds and we forget why we are here.  Only when God calls us to account, disciplining us for our own good, are we suddenly and painfully made aware of our sin.  At such time, we may be assured that God will hear the repentant cry of His child.  Therefore, God’s encouragement to us is to pray.

I encourage the maintenance of a prayer notebook if you have not already begun such a discipline.  Purchase a cheap spiral notebook and begin to keep a list of the matters about which you pray.  Enter in the first column the date you began to pray.  In a second column, enter the specific request you are seeking from God.  In a third column, note the date and the manner in which God answers prayer.  You will discover such a notebook to be a source of encouragement and hope as the years stretch out and as you fill that book with the evidence of God’s grace and power to answer prayer.

I have spoken of the act of prayer, challenging each hearer to consider the content of our prayers.  What sort of prayers are we offering up to our God?  Far too often, our prayers are anaemic, pedestrian, and consequently unworthy of the Name of our Great God and Saviour.  Such pitiful prayers actually betray a woeful arrogance for they reveal an attitude of complacency in the petitioner.  The individual who offers mundane prayers which, were they to be answered, could never accomplish anything of great moment, demonstrates an appalling sense of self-sufficiency and a lack of awareness of the great spiritual battles swirling about.  To pray pathetic little prayers exposes the smallness of our own hearts and our lack of understanding of the greatness of our Master’s heart.  I recommend that we invest a few moments at the beginning of our time of prayer so that we may confess that we do not know how to pray as we ought and to take care to seek God’s gracious intervention so that He may instruct us in the prayers we should offer.

What we call revival is but the renewal of the normal Christian life following a period when the burning zeal of Christian life has died down to dimly glowing embers.  Such revival always and ever is defined by a believer’s return to awareness of the presence of God.  God has not deserted His child, but His child has wandered away from Him.  You will perhaps remember the stunning appraisal of distance occasioned by sin which is provided in Isaiah’s prophecy:

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,

nor his ear too dull to hear.

But your iniquities have separated

you from your God;

your sins have hidden his face from you,

so that he will not hear.

[Isaiah 59:1, 2]

God is not distant from His people, but sin separates His people from Him.  This truth is but an iteration of Psalm 66:18, 19:

If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened;

but God has surely listened

and heard my voice in prayer.

In my citation, I have included the nineteenth verse because I believe it is important to conclude this point of the sermon on the positive note that God does hear the prayer of His repentant child.  At the point you and I turn again to seek the face of our God and at the point when you and I turn again to pray—God has pledged by His sacred honour to hear.  A revived people are a praying people, and a praying people are a revived people.

Dear people let us encourage one another—not to say prayers, but to pray.  Let us seek out opportunities to pray—individually and corporately.  Hold the pastor accountable to pray and set him free to pray for the people.  Let us seek the fellowship of shared prayer and let us determine to seek the face of our God once more.

God Forgives Sin — If my people will seek my face then I will forgive their sin.  Need I list our sins to convince us that we are sinful?  I need not begin with those sins which probably have no great presence in our lives—for few of us are adulterers, murderers, robbers, and such.  Each of us, however, do sin continually, finding need of God’s forgiveness.  The sins of which we are guilty are not the sins which the world counts as great, but they are sin nevertheless and therefore offensive to Holy God.  We need but take a moment to consider the types of sin which do infect our lives and which sap our spiritual vitality to become conscious of the insidious nature of our own sinful natures.

We waste the precious commodity of time given us by His mercy.  I am not speaking of true refreshment of the body which each of us requires, but I am speaking of the time invested in matters unworthy of a child bearing the Name of the Living God, the wasted hours we spend filling our mind with garbage which cannot honour Holy God, the moments forever passed which we cannot recapture when we failed to speak for Christ and for good.  Each of us has wasted time reading that which must dishonour Him, watching that which we call entertainment and which is a disgrace to His undefiled child.  We listen to and consequently adopt attitudes which are inconsistent with the openness expected of the God of light.  Is it not sin to know to do right and to fail to do it?  Wasted time is a sin before God—and each of us is guilty.

Because of fear, we find it convenient to lie, and that to one another, to neglect to tell the entire story and to refuse to live openly as children of the light.  We struggle unsuccessfully against greed.  Were we utterly honest we would be compelled to confess that we have continually broken each of His divine commands.  The Apostle reviewed his life and bemoaned what a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death [Romans 7:24]?  Should it be a great surprise that you and I are likewise consumed by sin?

On the authority of God’s Word I am convinced that through Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary every sin of every individual saved by God’s grace has been forgiven for all time.  I do not suggest, as do some who appear intent on questioning the keeping power of our Lord, that the child of God lives some sort of perilous existence in which the outcome of faith is uncertain until after death.  However I do find that because God loves us He dares discipline us for our own good; and when His hand of discipline rests heavy on us we hold the key which will remove the chastisement through repentance which again turns us to the Father in faith.  Fellowship with God must be broken through our own rebellion.  When we seek the face of the Father, we receive forgiveness of sin.

I find myself praying as I walk each day, seeking fellowship with the Father.  How can I encourage you who hear me week-by-week to practise what I do not pursue?  If you believe nothing else I should ever say, accept that what I now tell you is true.  Fellowship with God is without question the greatest treasure any individual can possess, for flowing from that fellowship is peace, joy, and intimacy which exceeds anything this earth affords.  I do not say that I have arrived at the place where such fellowship is a common condition, but I do say that I have obtained a glimpse of that fellowship and that I have experienced a touch of the accompanying benefits on occasion.  I am so smitten by what I have discovered in God and in fellowship with Him that I am compelled to tell you of the glories of our God and Saviour, urging you to seize this wonderful grace which is freely offered in Him.

We seem to have the idea that fellowship is nothing more than simply asking another how he or she is doing.  Fellowship is so much more than that.  Dr. Vernon McGee wrote of fellowship on one occasion, and this is what he had to say.

                                I had the privilege of being at Oxford University as a tourist and seeing the Great Quad, the Wren Tower, and the different schools that comprise Oxford.  I visited one school which specialised in Shakespeare.  Now suppose you wanted to teach that particular subject.  You would go to Oxford University and attend the particular school specialising in that subject.  When you ate, you would sit down at the board, and there you would meet the other men who were studying Shakespeare, and you would meet the professors who did the teaching.  You would hear them all talking about Shakespeare in a way you never had heard before.  For instance, in the play Romeo and Juliet most of us think that Juliet was the only girl Romeo courted.  It is shocking to find that when he said, “One fairer than my love!  The all-seeing sun ne’er saw her match since first the world begun,” that fickle fellow Romeo was talking about another girl!  You would hear many such things that would alert you to the fact that you had a lot to learn about Shakespeare.  So you would begin to study and pull books off the shelf in the library and go to the lectures.  After you had been at the school for two or three years, they would make you a fellow.  Then when you would go in and sit at the board with the other students and professors, you would join right in with them as they talked about the sonnets of Shakespeare.  You would have fellowship with them, sharing the things of Shakespeare.

Fellowship as believers means that we meet and share the things of Christ.  We talk together about the Lord Jesus Christ and of His Word.  That is the kind of fellowship we long for with Christ.  We yearn for the experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus without realising what is missing from our lives.  When the Risen Christ had walked with them and taught them, they found themselves exclaiming to each other: Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?  [Luke 24:32].  That sweetness which lingers after being in His presence, comes when we have received forgiveness of sin and all hindrance to fellowship is removed.

God Heals Lands — If my people will seek my face then I will heal their land.  Dare we hope that God will actually send revival to heal our land?  Dare we believe that God will actually intervene in history to perform a gracious work in our day?  Dare we imagine that He shall actually invade the sphere of people who are at rest on the lees of past blessings which resulted from the faith of righteous forefathers?  May I say very candidly that if God does not invade, if God does not interfere, if God does not intervene—there remains but one message to this nation: Prepare to meet your God [cf. Amos 4:12]!

We hear reports here and there of refreshing showers of blessings poured out on parched and arid ground.  Through various means, we occasionally catch a glimpse of the power of God in this day as we learn that He even now restores the years devoured by the locusts.  In a few selected locales, we learn that God reverses the effects of the plagues of sin which have devastated and destroyed.  Men and women are set free from the bondage of sin, souls are converted to Christ, and the churches are again filled.  One cannot hear such glorious reports or learn of such divine intervention without a crie de coeur escaping our lips: “O, Lord, do it here!  In this day and in this place, send a revival, O, Lord.”  When revival comes, will we be overlooked?  O, God, may it never be!

When little children are treated as though they were but a piece of meat to gratify the perverted lusts of wicked men, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When parents fear for the safety of their children while walking to school or playing on a playground, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When women emulate the wicked perversions of sick males, swaggering about, exulting in their wickedness, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When immoral men and women brazenly flaunt their perversions as just another lifestyle—a choice somewhat like the food one prefers—our land is sick and in need of healing.  When men and women parade in the streets demanding acceptance of and authentication for their wickedness, our land is sick and grievously wounded and in need of healing.  When more babies are aborted than are delivered at term, our land is sick and in need of divine healing.

When sorrow and grief, suffering and tragedy, become just another entertainment form with which the various media sell the wares of the nation, our land is sick and we need God’s healing touch.  When rescuers toiling tirelessly to save the homes of a flooded city complain that the photographers and reporters are so numerous and so persistent in attempting to get an interview or a picture that they cannot fulfil their duties, our land is sick and in desperate need of healing.  When, in the name of public knowledge, media representatives fabricate news, distort events, even ignoring relief for the dying within a famine stricken or war torn nation so they can obtain the one special picture, our land is sick and in need of healing.

When even the leaders of the nation lose the respect of the people and are unable to keep their multiplied lies in order, our land is sick and in desperate need of God’s gracious intervention.  When civic leaders expose their lack of ethics and reveal their ignorance of righteousness, our land is sick and in desperate need of health.  When the practise of the faith is ridiculed publicly and even Parliament adopts a “prayer” to a god representative of everyone and known to no one so that none will be offended, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When politicians use the church for their own tawdry purposes as though she were a cheap whore, then cast her aside when finished using her, our land is sick and in need of healing.  O God, intervene for Your Name’s sake!

In other days and in repeated instances, God took cognisance of the wickedness of mankind and intervened to judge.  No observer of the contemporary scene could look upon our nation and claim a lack of understanding of God’s assessment of the earth before the Flood.  Hear again that dark appraisal of mankind provided in Genesis 6:5-7: The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

What a tragedy—every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time!  It is as though the Divine Author is multiplying the wickedness of mankind for emphasis, except He is simply reporting in the most accurate manner possible mankind’s utter depravity.  Every thought was contaminated and evil.  The wickedness prevailed all the time.  The persistently deteriorating condition described could well apply to our day if the reports available to each of us are any indication.

Peter, reviewing this very occasion prophesied for our own good in 2 Peter 3:3-7: First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.  They will say, "Where is this `coming' he promised?  Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."  But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.  By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgement and destruction of ungodly men.

It remains to be seen what might be accomplished if a handful of people were to make a commitment to walk humbly before their God, crying out in prayer as they seek His face and as they deliberately turn from their own wicked ways.  May I suggest that we can discover what could happen only if we determine that we will be that people.  God can heal our cities—if we determine we will be that people.  Assuredly, God can heal our own community—if we determine we will be that people.  God can heal our provinces—if we determine we will be that people.  God can heal our nation—if we determine we will be that people.  God can heal our church—if we will be that people.

I make no secret of the fact that I seek revival in our day.  I seek revival first for myself and then for my family.  There is a great need for individuals to turn from their own ways and turn to God with their whole hearts.  I seek revival for the people over whom God has set me.  There is a great need for our church to again discover the power which flows from the presence of the Living God with His people.  I seek revival for the whole of the people of God.  Revival is like that—it cannot long be kept secret nor kept from spreading.  Soon after revival breaks out in my heart it must either spill over to touch others about me or it will flame out.  Soon after revival breaks out in one church it will either spill over to sister congregations or it will quickly die out.  I long for revival.

Vance Havner was greatly used of God to bring revival during the days of his ministry.  He often compared revival to a great conflagration which begins with a bit of kindling wood.  Those of you who may have grown up in more humble circumstances know something of building a proper fire to ensure that the embers would glow through the night.  Early in the morning the first one up in the home would go to the fireplace and see the grey ash lying on the hearth.  The knowledgeable individual, however, would know that beneath the ashes were the embers necessary for rekindling the fire.

At the back of the fireplace would be a backlog—a large log against which the fire was laid and which insured a ready blaze on the morrow.  Those who have lived in such homes which required a fire in the fireplace know that you do not build a warm and cheery fire in the hearth by heaping embers against the back log.  You must lay a fire with kindling against the backlog and then uncover the embers.  The embers are then scooped against the kindling and as the kindling burns, it sets the backlog ablaze.

I do not seek backlogs today, though should God call some among us to be such logs to sustain revival and to cause revival fires to burn hotter still, we will surely rejoice.  I believe, however, that God would have each of us commit ourselves to be kindling, to be available to start and to spread revival fire.  In my message last week I issued a call for each of us to commit ourselves to do what is necessary for personal revival.  Today, I challenge each of us to consider how we can participate in the revival which must come if we are to continue as a church, as a nation, as a free people.

I wonder if it is not time for us to openly come, to publicly come before the Lord to lay ourselves on the altar for His use.  Perhaps it is that some someone today has need to make public a confession as he or she forsakes wickedness.  Should that someone be you I would caution you not to feel the need to be specific or graphic in your confession, but I would encourage you to solicit the prayers of your fellow worshipers.  There may be among us some someone who simply has need to voice a prayer publicly.  You come now and we will provide time for any who are so moved to pray, openly and humbly.  Daniel prayed, confessing the sin of his people and God heard that prayer.  Be a Daniel and pray if that is what God leads you to do now.

Is it possible that there is some someone today who has never confessed Christ, perhaps has never believed in Him, and the Spirit of God is prompting you to come confessing that He is Lord?  Come now and tell the people of God how He has saved you.  They will rejoice with you and the angels of heaven will rejoice with you.  Some of you, though redeemed, have yet to prove obedient to Christ through following Him in baptism as He has commanded.  This is also a day of new beginnings for you.  Could it be that revival tarries because of your disobedience?  Other some perhaps have need to unite with this church as we receive members.  You come in obedience to Christ and to His Spirit now.

I shall stand here at the front of the auditorium to receive such as are led by the Spirit of God to come at this time.  I ask that you simply remain in your seats unless God is leading you to make some public commitment, some public statement, or some open prayer.  I shall not drag out the proceedings, but I shall remain so long as the Spirit of God works in our midst.  Who comes first?  Amen.

                                I had the privilege of being at Oxford University as a tourist and seeing the Great Quad, the Wren Tower, and the different schools that comprise Oxford.  I visited one school which specialised in Shakespeare.  Now suppose you wanted to teach that particular subject.  You would go to Oxford University and attend the particular school specialising in that subject.  When you ate, you would sit down at the board, and there you would meet the other men who were studying Shakespeare, and you would meet the professors who did the teaching.  You would hear them all talking about Shakespeare in a way you never had heard before.  For instance, in the play Romeo and Juliet most of us think that Juliet was the only girl Romeo courted.  It is shocking to find that when he said, “One fairer than my love!  The all-seeing sun ne’er saw her match since first the world begun,” that fickle fellow Romeo was talking about another girl!  You would hear many such things that would alert you to the fact that you had a lot to learn about Shakespeare.  So you would begin to study and pull books off the shelf in the library and go to the lectures.  After you had been at the school for two or three years, they would make you a fellow.  Then when you would go in and sit at the board with the other students and professors, you would join right in with them as they talked about the sonnets of Shakespeare.  You would have fellowship with them, sharing the things of Shakespeare.

When little children are treated as though they were but a piece of meat to gratify the perverted lusts of wicked men, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When parents fear for the safety of their children while walking to school or playing on a playground, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When women emulate the wicked perversions of sick males, swaggering about, exulting in their wickedness, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When immoral men and women brazenly flaunt their perversions as just another lifestyle—a choice somewhat like the food one prefers—our land is sick and in need of healing.  When men and women parade in the streets demanding acceptance of and authentication for their wickedness, our land is sick and grievously wounded and in need of healing.  When more babies are aborted than are delivered at term, our land is sick and in need of divine healing.

When sorrow and grief, suffering and tragedy, become just another entertainment form with which the various media sell the wares of the nation, our land is sick and we need God’s healing touch.  When rescuers toiling tirelessly to save the homes of a flooded city complain that the photographers and reporters are so numerous and so persistent in attempting to get an interview or a picture that they cannot fulfil their duties, our land is sick and in desperate need of healing.  When, in the name of public knowledge, media representatives fabricate news, distort events, even ignoring relief for the dying within a famine stricken or war torn nation so they can obtain the one special picture, our land is sick and in need of healing.

When even the leaders of the nation lose the respect of the people and are unable to keep their multiplied lies in order, our land is sick and in desperate need of God’s gracious intervention.  When civic leaders expose their lack of ethics and reveal their ignorance of righteousness, our land is sick and in desperate need of health.  When the practise of the faith is ridiculed publicly and even Parliament adopts a “prayer” to a god representative of everyone and known to no one so that none will be offended, our land is sick and in need of healing.  When politicians use the church for their own tawdry purposes as though she were a cheap whore, then cast her aside when finished using her, our land is sick and in need of healing.  O God, intervene for Your Name’s sake!