At the Bible Museum in Washington DC recently, several high-profile political types spent time reading their favorite Bible passages as a celebration of America’s 250th birthday and its spiritual beginnings. President Trump read 2 Chronicles 7:14, “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.”
While originally God made this promise to the ancient Israelites, it kind of makes you wonder… What if we took that promise seriously today?
When God first spoke those words to King Solomon, it wasn’t about conquering enemies, changing a government, or becoming fabulously wealthy. Instead, it was about the people He loved, ordinary, imperfect people who were arrogant, selfish, lustful, jealous, greedy, angry and lazy.
In short, people like us, people who are sinful. God’s invitation to the Israelites was actually pretty simple: be humble, talk to God, spend time with Him, and turn from your life of sin and you will experience peace.
However, that’s a little different from how we usually think. We tend to look outside of ourselves for big, external solutions. Others will solve our issues, right? Like the government or effective nonprofits, maybe great schools, or even new technologies? But God’s promise points somewhere quieter, somewhere more personal. To our own hearts.
In this age of outrage, what if we showed a little more humility? Maybe our discussions with those we disagree with would feel less like arguments and more like real conversations. Maybe if we listened more, reacted less, and were quicker to say, “You know what, I was wrong,” we might feel a level of peace we haven’t felt in a long time.
And prayer? What if it wasn’t just something we turned to when disaster strikes? What if talking to God became as much a habit as checking your phone or grabbing your morning coffee? Taking a moment to pause, breathe and invite God into what’s going on in our lives, that alone could change the pace of our days.
Pursuing God isn’t just about asking for help or following rules. It’s about actually wanting to know Him on a personal level. It might mean changing our life, slowing down, making space for what matters most and caring more about who God wants us to be than who we want to be. That’s not always the easiest shift, but it’s literally a life changer.
Remember, there’s a promise tied to all of this: to be heard, forgiven and be healed. “Healing the land” doesn’t have to be some monumental worldwide event. More than likely, it probably looks like personal change, better relationships, less bitterness and anger, more forgiveness and love, and a deeper sense of peace in everyday life.
You may question if something the president read the other day from some ancient book can really speak into life today, but the reality is that people are still people. Thousands of years later we still deal with the same struggles, the same sins and the same need for forgiveness and peace. That’s what makes this promise still real today.
Trevor Van Laar is a Pastor at Gilroy and San Martin Presbyterian Churches. He is a member of the Interfaith Clergy Alliance and can be reached at tr****@********es.org.
