2 Chronicles 7:14 Part 1: Humbling Ourselves

I really find that writing helps me a lot to meditate on a verse and consolidate my thoughts... so i hope to chew on this verse as i write down my thoughts on it... tried "chewing" on it on my bed yesterday but ended up falling asleep... i guess this should be far more effective...

For those who would be willing to receive this into their spirits...

2 Chronicles 7:14 (New International Version)

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.

"will humble themselves"

It's interesting to note how God speaks- if He comes in to say "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves", it certainly means one thing- that they're not humbling themselves! and why would that be so? considering the fact that we know that we are utterly helpless to have saved ourselves if not for the grace of God? what have we missed in the Christian walk that we have failed to see the desperate need that we have to abide in Him? We fail to see two things. Firstly, we fail to realize that not only are we saved by grace but we are also kept by grace. That means the maintainance of this whole Christian life and walk (which is by far impossible on our own and by our human standards) all depends on Him. And not living a humble walk is a reflection of our failure to abide. It is symptomatic of a much deeper problem that has other grave implications- if we fail to abide, by what power and substance are we living our lives? We dry out spiritually, we fall into sin, we find that our whole Christian walk becomes meaningless and we live below the standard that God has for us. The bottomline is that failure to humble ourselves reflects a descent into degeneracy of life. We become Christians just in name but not in substance, having a form but denying its power. We may be called by His Name... but is that all we have? A label void of the life of Christ?

The second problem is related to the first one. Failure to humble ourselves shows an incomplete conversion. We may know Christ in name but not in Person. Because if so we would be changed to become more like Him. And He humbled Himself to the ultimate, having left His throne in heaven to be born as a man, dying as a sinner but resurrected as Lord and Saviour. And we see this in our church in Singapore where people become Christians because of expediency- a free ticket into heaven? Failure to humble ourselves means receiving His grace but not allowing it to work fully in our lives until we are transformed by it.

And so if the goal of this verse is revival, we find that revival starts with an acknowledgement of our degenerate condition and our desperate need for Him. And even doing so will be a work of God in itself because how true it is that we are blind to our own condition until the Holy Spirit shows us! And when he does reveal it, then we are on our way to a true and lasting spiritual awakening... because it can only be His hand that moves us! People can manufacture emotional worship but only God can bring about true conviction of sin and conversion of character. Let us consider if we are merely people called by His name but yet to live His life.