LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
Sunday, July 2, 2023.
AWARENESS OF GOD
Read: 2 Chronicles 6:14-42
[14]and he said: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts.
[15]You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day.
[16]Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’
[17]And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David.
[18]“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
[19]Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You:
[20]that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place.
[21]And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.
[22]“If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple,
[23]then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.
[24]“Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple,
[25]then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.
[26]“When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them,
[27]then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.
[28]“When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is;
[29]whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple:
[30]then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men),
[31]that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.
[32]“Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple;
[33]then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.
[34]“When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name,
[35]then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.
[36]“When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near;
[37]yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’;
[38]and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name:
[39]then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.
[40]Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.
[41]“Now therefore, Arise, O Lord God, to Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength. Let Your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, And let Your saints rejoice in goodness.
[42]“O Lord God, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed; Remember the mercies of Your servant David.”
MEMORISE: 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 (2 Chronicles 7:14).
EXPOSITION
God's conversation with Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 forms part of His response to the king's prayer in 2 Chronicles 6:14-42. As we read the prayer, the phrase "awareness of God" mind. It seems that Solomon (at this point in time) had such a strong sense of the awareness of God. This allowed him to understand that before the Almighty, all men are deeply sinful and in need of God's mercy. This also allowed Solomon to plead on behalf of Israel that if the nation should sin in the days to come, but manage to repent, may the Lord forgive. Ironically, such an acute sense of the awareness of God seemed to have fade as Solomon grew in his "awareness" of the affection of his many wives and accompanying idols.
In comparison, the world is always telling us to cultivate "self-awareness". While trying to cultivate an awareness of self is well intentioned, it can never lead us to a wholesome understanding of how much we need God and the depth of God's grace for us. Why? We are trying to use our sinful selves to know God. As Jeremiah 17:9 suggests, the heart (and therefore the self) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? We definitely cannot, but God can. Therefore, we need to ask God to help us develop an increasing sense of the awareness of Him, so that we can have a more reflective and wholesome understanding of who we truly are and how God can redeem aspects of us that are not pleasing to Him.
SUGGESTED HYMN FOR TODAY: CAC GHB 452
1. Just as God who reigns on high
Spake to men in days gone by,
So the Lord is calling men today,
And, my brother this is true,
Whatso-e'er He says to you
There is but one thing to do just obey
Chorus:
Just obey, just obey,
Is the way, God's way;
When His message comes to you
There is but one thing to do,
Just obey just obey.
2. If you're in the Saviour's hand,
You must do as He commands
For there is no other gospel way;
Never put the message by,
Never stop to reason why,
When the Saviour speaks to you, just obey.
3. If for mansions fair you sigh
In that land beyond the sky,
After time with you has pass'd away;
Tho' the way you may not see,
Christ is calling "Follow Me."
Faith and duty both will cry just obey.
Amen.
PRAYER POINTS:
1.God Almighty, You created us and so You know us better than ourselves. Help us to grow closer to You, so that we "hear" what You require of us for the on-going work of redemption in our daily lives.
2. Lord, cause Your awareness to grow stronger in my heart/life, as I await Your imminent return.
3. Lord, cause Your awareness to grow stronger in the he
arts of our leaders, to moderate their attitudes to people and things in their care.
EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Psalms 83-86
