In 1 Kings 8 – Just as relevant today as it was then…
The Temple has been built and King Solomon gives a prayer….
22 And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
30 And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
Yes, God will forgive us. However, now Jesus has come and we do not need to pray “towards” the Temple as Christ is with us.
Solomon speaks of the troubles we may face that we will need to Pray:
31 If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house:
We’ve got a lot of trespass going on today…Time to pray
32 Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.
We’ve got a lot of wickedness going on today…Time to pray
33 When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house:
Our country is being attacked by an enemy that is sinning against God…Time to pray
34 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.
Our country is has sinned… Time to pray
35 When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them:
Our land is a mess because people have sinned…Time to pray and confess thy name, turn from our sin as we have been afflicted.
36 Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
Our country does not teach Gods way and knows not the way they should walk… Time to pray
37 If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
We are seeing a famine in our land of abandonment of Gods Word which has lead to a deficit of Truth, now we believe lies as truth…Time to pray
38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house:
Every man has a plague of his own heart in rebellion against God…Time to pray
39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
Every man shall be judged according to his ways… Time to pray
40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.
We lack the fear of the Lord which we have lost… Time to pray
53 For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance…
We have been separated from the other people as ONE BODY in Christ. Not by race, Not by earthly position, Not be education, but by FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. Heading for our inheritance that is waiting in Heaven, there will be no inheritance on earth that can be taken into eternity.
Time to pray:
57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us:
58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.
60 That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.
61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
AMEN