TODAYS BIBLE READING:
 

Every day we have a choice whether we set our eyes inward, outward, or upward for direction. We can seek strength and answers pridefully from within ourselves elevating our own wisdom and ability. We can mistakenly elevate the abilities of others and believe they have the solutions for the tragedies that we face personally and as a nation. Or, we can look upward and in submission seek the only One who truly has answers and the only One who has the ability to direct our future. Every day another mass shooting and the experts weigh in as to why and how to solve it. People live in fear of climate change and promote one solution after another as though God is incapable of simply speaking forth whatever solution is necessary.

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Solomon was very young when he ascended to the throne of Israel, probably 12-15. Despite his youth, what is refreshing in today's reading is his humility in public before the people. Notice how different his approach was to today's leaders as we read in 2 Chronicles 6:13, "(for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven);". As you read his long and beautiful prayer before the people take notice to the most frequent pronoun used: "You". He was publicly declaring before all the people that their future and hope rested not on him, but God. He was publicly revealing to the people that he was merely a vessel to be used by God. He was exhorting the people to forever seek their guidance from Him, to refocus on Him when things went wrong, and to exalt Him when things went favorably. It was, it is, and would always be about Him, not themselves.

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We live in a very distracted world. Between social media, television, and our daily conversations there is no shortage of opinions on a whole host of topics. These distractions are heartfelt and passionate and those making these statements believe what they are saying. But every opinion that is not of God simply moves us further away from the only source that matters. Why anyone is surprised by what is taking place in our nation from the violence, to the moral depravity, to the hostile rhetoric is hard to fathom. We are simply observing the transformation of a nation that once, as Solomon did, came to God on their knees as the painting of George Washington revealed, as our leaders did in Congress before drafting the U.S. Constitution, to the utter godless nation we now find ourselves in. Solomon knew then that the only hope of his nation would be revival and a return to God when things went wrong. Our nation, which was founded under God, has the same offer. We can continue to spiral out of control, and we can continue to seek the next leader to pull us out of the abyss we find ourselves in, or we can seek God. If our nation is to survive, it will be because of one thing and one thing only: Revival. We either turn our hearts once again to Him in absolute submission, or we will take the same path as so many nations and empires have done before us, which are are now only seen by the ruins which remain.