Heal Our Land

By Jeremy Lim, Session Elder

“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 NIV‬‬)

I’m a physical therapist, and one of the obvious perks of my job is that I get to help people feel better. I am always encouraged to hear about how my patients are improving, but I learned many years ago that my job is not to heal them. My job is to help their bodies heal; I am a part of the healing process. 

Likewise, Christians are not called to heal our land. God is not asking us to point out the faults in other people and then try to fix them, but He is inviting us to play a hugely significant role in the healing He wants to bring to our land. This healing begins with this call to His people, the local and global Church, to come back into a right relationship with Him.

We cannot simply ask God to heal our land and then sit back and wait for Him to do it because His answer to that prayer involves us:

“If My people...will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then…” 

God is speaking directly to you and me, that if we do these things, then He will hear, and forgive, and heal.

If I’m honest, I often want to skip this step. I want to be close to Jesus, but it’s not easy to confront the pride and sin in my own life. I want the world to know Jesus, and so I’m happy to pray with others and help them grow in their humility, seek God, and turn from their sinful ways. But God loves me too much to let me gloss over these things in my own life. He wants to heal me not just because it will benefit me, but because it will benefit the world around me as well. 

Let’s not let a perpetually broken and wounded world be a reflection of Christians who are unwilling to confront our own pride and shortcomings. God’s healing is meant to flow through us, literally; that as we are healed, He will work through us to bring healing to those around us. Only a healing Church will lead to a healed land. What an amazing privilege to be a part of such an incredible plan!

Prayer: God, forgive my pride and help me to seek Your face and learn to care about the things You care about. Give me strength to turn away from anything that does not make You happy. Help me ignore the distraction of trying to fix other people so that I can experience Your healing power in my life. But as You heal me, I want to be willing to let You work through me to bring healing to those around me. Hear my prayer, and the similar prayers of millions of other Christians, and forgive our sins, and heal our land. Amen. 

A recent song by Casting Crowns, called Start Right Here, captures the power of this verse and I’d encourage you to check it out here.  

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