Turn Toward What Matters
Around 957 B.C., after King Solomon spent years planning, building, and, finally dedicating the temple that his father, King David, had longed for—God made Himself known by sending fire down from heaven and filling the temple with His presence.
Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night, explaining how He’d heard his prayer and chosen his temple—reminding Solomon how the Israelites should respond when they encounter hard things. He said:
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT
Though this specific message was given to a specific people at a specific time in history—humbling ourselves, seeking God, and turning from our sins are timeless actions that we should continue to live out.
True humility, honest prayer, and genuine repentance are the keys to intimacy with God.
And we can’t fake it. We can’t just go through the motions. We can’t merely pretend to “look” humble and repentant … and we can’t do these things on our own.
We need to come to God in order to receive His help. We need Him in order to maintain a posture of humility, prayer, and repentance.
So if you’ve found yourself feeling distant from God, trying to do things your own way, or intentionally running in the opposite direction of your Creator—it’s not too late to turn around.
You can still come to God, admit that you can’t go through life alone, and seek His help. He’s a loving, forgiving, and healing Father who specializes in making all things new. He never stops inviting us to draw near to Him.
Let Goodness Prevail
In the beginning, life was good—both physically and spiritually. In fact, God created everything that existed and called it very good.
But that goodness was fractured when an enemy enticed God’s image-bearing people to question His goodness and doubt His trustworthiness. So, when Adam and Eve chose to disregard God’s instructions by eating from the only forbidden tree, their eyes were opened to two opposing forces: good and evil.
The battle between good and evil isn’t just an overarching theme in the Bible, but a theme that permeates every continent, every culture, and every nation. It’s a theme that’s laced throughout books and movies, and one that plays out in real life. And the reason it’s so pervasive is because there's a real battle taking place.
All these years, we’re still sharing this good-yet-fallen world. But, make no mistake, the Kingdom of Darkness is still warring against the Kingdom of Light.
The apostle Paul gave some advice on this topic to the ...