Call His Name

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 forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

This has been a horrible week in Florida, with more than one tragic and sad event happening very close to where I live. I know that the tragedy that happened in Orlando has been all over the news but I have a fairly good idea that it has been a bit more prominent here, so close to where it all occurred. We've had a front row seat to the carnage of hatred.

Earlier while I was praying I was taken by a verse in Scripture that used the words, “Jesus Christ” not hard to find that name in Scripture, so a bit odd that it would just stop me in my reading. I sat for a few minutes just thinking about that name, about other verses about the name. The two that kept running through my mind were Proverbs 18:10 where it says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.” And Philippians 2:10-11, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I knew that there was a message in those verses for me and given a current situation in my life I was pretty sure I knew what it was until God focused me on the victims from the Orlando tragedy. For days I have been seeing and hearing the word “senseless” used in reference to that horror. At first glance it does seem senseless but to that person who caused all that carnage there was more than sense, there was purpose. It is a purpose I find abhorrent, but a purpose nonetheless.

Here in America, we've become so “tolerant” that God's people are afraid to speak, afraid to stand up, lest they find themselves bloodied and gasping for life. The people in that nightclub wear a label that makes some want to point fingers, insist that they couldn't possibly love God. I disagree. I do not know a single soul, dead or alive, who was there that night. This I know, I am a Christian, who loves, honors and adores my God but I am also a sinner. If heaven forbid, an incident like this one, occurs in the local grocery or cafe, I could be a victim as well. The people who were killed were not killed because of their lifestyle. They were killed because we've opened the door to the thief. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (emphasis mine) The thief comes only to do harm. He is bold. He doesn't wait for invitations. He just barges in and yet, he doesn't have to work that hard anymore. Why? Because we Americans have thrown the door wide open for him. We're so busy pointing fingers at what we see as another person's sin that we don't deal with our own. We judge far more than we pray or love.

That is not a condemnation of the life choices that are made by the people who frequented that club. It is a condemnation of so called Christians who throw the name of our Lord around as if it were used tissue paper. It is a condemnation of people who confess Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him with their lives, as Brennan Manning so perfectly phrased it.

There will always be people full of hate in the world but we are not defenseless against them. If those of us called by God's name would bow our heads and pray, love faster and far more often than we judge, live as Jesus called us and taught us to live then, then we would see more victory and less defeat.

We cannot wring our hands, shake our heads and bemoan the fact that evil is rampant in our world, in our very own country. We need to take it back. We need to fight with the best weapon we have and that is prayer. We need to wage war on our knees. We need to stop pointing fingers and start raising hands in praise.

God's Word says that if we humble ourselves and pray He will heal our land. God never, ever lies. We need to take Him at His word and pray.