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From
the December, 1997 edition of The Doulos monthly
newsletter
by
Joe Fitler
"...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 will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their
sin
and will heal their land."
II
Chronicles 7:14
"If
it ain't broke, don't fix it"
We've
all heard this phrase at one time or
another and from our perspective, it often seems to be
sound advice. How about those times where we ask God for
healing? Particularly, the large-scale healing that we have
been praying for our nation as a whole. In October, we watched
the hundreds of thousands of men assembled on the
Mall in Washington, D.C. for Stand in the Gap. We prayed,
sang and wept along with these men as they humbled
themselves before God on behalf of our nation. In November,
we gathered at The Chapel for two days of prayer
and fasting with over 2,700 other churches nationwide
via satellite. This large-scale healing we've prayed
for, this revival that we've heard so much about, requires
something of us that is probably the single most difficult
aspect of our Christian walk.
It is an
attitude of complete humility.
Many
of the calls for prayer at both of these gatherings dealt with
areas such as racial and denominational reconciliation, sexual
purity, and spiritual accountability. In these areas, and
countless others, only our complete humbling before God
will allow this healing to begin.
Why?
Because at the root of these problems, the same sin lurks.
Our selfish pride.
Now,
it is true that all sin is equal in the eyes of God; there is
no "grading on a scale." If there were, however, pride would top that scale. As
C.S. Lewis writes
in his book Mere Christianity:
"According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the
utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in
comparison: it was through Pride that
the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is
the complete anti-God state of mind."
And
pride, as you know, is the direct opposite to the virtue of
humility. With pride in our hearts, God will not use us; we
cannot exhibit Christ-like attributes while our motto is "Looking
Out for Number One." Many in our competitive, assertive
culture will claim that humility implies weakness. Yet
those who model true Biblical humility in their lives are people
of considerable moral strength and character, and are
anything but weak. Humility only comes through asking
God to break us thoroughly. And this is only able to occur
as a result of our giving over to God through confession
and submission all of those sinful areas of our lives
that because of pride, we refuse to turn over, or often even
acknowledge that they exist.
This
humility, this brokenness is required of us in the body of Christ before our healing and the healing
of our land can begin.
In other
words..."If we ain't broke, He won't fix us."
In
Christ,
Joe
Fitler
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