April 24, 2020

Today’s reading is an exciting and motivating chapter… don’t even think about just reading the commentary and not reading this chapter today!

Solomon just finished praying the dedication prayer on the temple, then… fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple.  The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it. (v.1b-2)  CAN you even imagine this?   Makes me excited for heaven!

The people of God has worship and repented of their sin and God responds in verses 14 and 15…

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.  My eyes will be open and my hears attentive to every prayer made in this place.

God gave very clear instructions to His people about the parameters of repentance and what steps to take.  These are applicable to us as well. If you have issues with the Lord and need to repent then please, review these critical steps.  Do them in order! We want to jump to the last one and get it over with – but true repentance takes time – it’s a process.

1. Humble Yourself

Pride is at the root of all sin.  It’s what started it all (Lucifer) and it was the motive of the first human sin (Eve).  Humility is the critical propellant to repentance.

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.  1 Peter 5:6

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”  James 4:6

Don’t RUSH or SHORTCUT this step!

2. Pray

Get on your knees – alone with God – phone off – and don’t get up until you feel released.  Cry out to God. Confess your sin.

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.  1 John 1:5-10

3. Seek the Face of God

Spend some time in the presence of God that you’ve missed out on because of your sin.  Adore Him. Read His Word. Talk with Him. Seek His Face.

4. Turn from your sin

Now – get up and take action.  Take steps to remove the sin. Get accountability.  Move forward in the grace of God.

• Times like we’re living in with COVID19 can cause us to be irritable and short tempered.  We can think of ourselves and not be humble. How could you take deliberate steps today to focus on humility?

• If we’ve ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need Him now!  Take a few minutes and pray…

• What does it mean to seek the face of God?  It means to yearn for Him and run after Him with all of your heart.  Does that describe you?

• Sin is the great distractant.  It will cause you to lose focus and do really dumb things.  In some ways sin has been fueled during all the extra time some of us have now.  Take a moment and confess you sin to the Lord. Make sure there’s nothing between you and your Lord.

By: Tim Parsons — Lead Pastor