In II Chronicles 6, Solomon is praying to God during the dedication of the Temple. Starting in verse 24 and going through verse 40 Solomon prays about some situations that would bring God’s wrath on the people. Solomon asks God that when the people turn and pray that God hears.

In God’s answer to Solomon starting in chapter 7, verse 12, He says – “ if my people who are called by my name 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. “

I would like us all to make note in our brains a few considerations from this verse.

1) Before God eases whatever trouble they are in, He expects them to do something. He is not operating unasked.

2) The first thing they had to do was make a HUGE attitude shift. They had to humble themselves. They had to bring themselves down low, to put themselves back into subjection to the will of God.

3) Then, they had to talk to God. Seems like we quit doing that when we are operating far from Him in our lives. One of the best ways to get back in touch with God is to talk to Him. I suspect that the humble attitude they have adopted was really showing in their prayers. If we read the prayers of the Bible we find that they “talked” to God, spilling their innermost thoughts to Him, their fears, their weaknesses, their sins and the their need for God’s help and mercy.

4) They must now go look for Him. They have bent the knee to Him establishing their lowly place in His scheme. They are talking to Him. And, now, they must seek Him. To me, we seek something when it is lost. They had lost God, truly they had lost their way. Strong’s dictionary says that seek means, to search out(by any method; specifically in worship or prayer); by implication to strive after…To strive after, they were going to have to put effort into this attitude change and asking God to take whatever evil had be-fallen them away.

5) With all of this, they still had to turn from their wicked ways. They had to do a 180 degree change in their lifestyle. They had to retreat from whatever they had been doing that took them from God. Do you notice that God is not going to let them continue in their old ways and still receive his forgiveness and help?

My friends, if we were reading the New Testament and these actions needed to be done because there was sin in our lives, we would be told to repent. So, by taking a look into the Old Testament we can get a good idea what repentance is. NOT being arrogant or proud in our sins. NOT not talking to God. Not following false gods and doing evil. NOT continuing on in our old, wicked ways.

Do you have problems that you know will keep you out of heaven? Change your attitude. Pray. Seek God. And, turn from those sinful behaviors. Repent.