And Heal Their Land

From January 26, 2011

I can’t say I’ve had the best past week or so. My housemate was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer last week. Another close friend lost a family member to suicide. I have friends struggling with God, abusive pasts, and pain. Sometimes it’s tempting to feel like the devil’s winning all the battles.

But this week I’ve also seen the devil lose. In the face of surrounding despair, God’s really been calling me to prayer. From January 5-15, some friends and I participated in the Operation Global Rain 10 days of prayer. If it wasn’t for those days, I know I wouldn’t have the same strength right now. And I’ve recently started praying with a group at 7:00 am. Yes, I mean morning. For those of you who know me, that’s a big deal :)

You have no idea the difference that the combination of prayer and community has made. I believe it’s been life to me. Tough things have still been happening, but I have also seen God start to win some long-standing spiritual battles in the lives of my friends and myself. It’s as if trials have increased, but so has God’s power. We have come to breaking point and been forced to realize that God is enough.

But beyond the microcosm of my little life, today I was impressed by 2 Chronicles 7:14: “Ifmy 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 will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

The part of the verse that hits me now, is “heal their land.” First, God asks “my people” to pray. He doesn’t say every single person in the land has to seek Him, but specifically his people. Yet the promised healing is to the whole land. And so I ask, could it be that God is just waiting for a core group of His people to really pray in order to heal our larger “land?” For us at Southern Adventist University, what revival does God want to start here if a few of His people will really see our need and seek Him on behalf of our campus? Our church? Our families???

Even in a week of trial and hurt, I have been granted evidence that God DOES heal. But I’ve been even more convicted that there’s a VERY real battle with a very real enemy that we can’t fight without banding together to pray. And I ask, will you pray with me? Pray for me? I’m tired to seeing Satan win. And I believe God is too. Maybe He’s just waiting for a few of His people to seek Him, and pray.