Prayer for The Kingdom To Be First

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I want to share my thoughts related to 2 Chronicles 7:14, which says:

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.

That is an often-quoted passage related to motivating us to pray. However, unfortunately, most of us just pray for the land to be healed, instead of really analyzing what the passage is saying.

The passage is calling for God’s people, and in the New Testament times that would be the church, to vertically focus on God. That is to say, it tells God’s people to repent, to turn from their wicked ways and to seek God’s face. Then it says God would hear from heaven and heal the land; it doesn’t even talk about us praying for the land to be healed.

He’s saying automatically once the body of Christ, or the people of God, are aligned with God sufficiently, God will then in turn horizontally heal the land, after our vertical focus is where it should be. We need to seek His face.

I don’t think God is pleased with a backslidden, half-baked church, just praying for the elections to go their way so that they don’t have to face persecution, so that their way of life is not disrupted.

I think that if a church is not seeking God’s face, then they’re so focused and narcissistic. So, we need to seek God’s face and not His hand.

We need to seek the Blesser more than the blessing. Then as a church, if we get right with God—if we have fully connected to the Head, that is to say Christ—then automatically, as it says in Matthew 6:33:

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

I’d like to lead us in a prayer and you could pray along with me. We also think about the way Jesus taught us to pray, as is recorded in Matthew 6:6-9 and Luke 11:2-4. He told us when you pray, say this:

Our Father, who lives in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, both now and forevermore, Amen.

In that prayer, it talks about putting God’s Kingdom first, even before you pray for your daily bread. It is similar to 2 Chronicles 7:14, when we are to seek His face even before we are instructed to believe for the land to be healed. Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father, we pray that your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. God, we pray that You would have your way in this generation and that we would be a vertical-seeking church.

We pray that we would not use You just to ascertain the goods that we want; that we would not use our faith just for personal prosperity; that we wouldn’t seek the blessings of God more than God himself; that we would learn, as it says in Psalm 37:4, to “delight in the Lord,” and then You said You would grant us the desires of our heart anyway.

Father, we would delight in You for your sake. We would love You for your sake. We would seek your face more than your hand.

And we would be in love with You because You are so lofty and high and beautiful and good. You are so incredible that, Lord, what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that You even envisioned him or have anything to do with him?

Oh God, You blow our minds with how great You are. We humble ourselves. We repent for the backslidden lukewarmness of many believers, including ourselves.

Lord, we turn to You instead of turning to ourselves for the answers. We know that no matter who gets elected, our nation is in trouble unless the church turns back to You.

We thank You that we have the opportunity, we have the window to seek Your face, to turn from our wicked ways. We thank You that the promise You made is You will heal the land. In Jesus’ name, Amen.