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II Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.”

Revival in this nation and the healing of our land is based on God’s contingent promises. Yet, it is important to remember that God places the mantle of responsibility to meet the contingencies upon us, His people.

Revival and healing will not come from government. Revival and healing will not come from entertainment. Revival and healing will not come from the courts. Revival and healing will not come from politics. Revival and healing will not come from the media. Revival and healing will not come from policies and programs.

Instead, revival and healing will only come from God as the result of the obedience of His people. God is calling you. God is calling me. We are His people, and the responsibility for revival and healing is ours alone. If revival and healing never come, it is not the fault of the world. It is our fault.

We must not expect anyone else to carry the load. We must not expect change in our absence. We must not shift responsibility to others. God is calling His people to His plan for His purposes. We must answer.

PLEASE PRAY THAT GOD’S PEOPLE WOULD MOBILIZE IN PRAYERFUL FAITHFULNESS. We must look no further than the mirror to determine the solution to our nation’s problems.

Isaiah 48:17-19 “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.”

These verses, though they omit the word ‘if’, contain a contingent promise nonetheless. As God typically does, He asks a little and gives a lot. In order to receive peace, righteousness, fruitfulness, and longevity the people only had to hearken to the Lord. All they had to do was pay attention.

God’s words are available for guidance, providing wisdom in the way that we should go. We profit from His teaching. We gain from his direction. We benefit from his Word.

The input is our attention, while the output is the best of God’s blessings. PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD PAY ATTENTION TO GOD’S DIRECTION. IF we hearken unto Him and His commandments, THEN we will see amazing blessings unfold before us. We must pay attention.

Genesis 18:26 “And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

Genesis 18:32 “And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

The terms ‘contingent promise’ or ‘conditional clause’ sound grandiose, as if the conditions must be magnificent in order to produce a meaningful outcome. In reality, the Lord asks very little from us. The magnificence lies in His output and not in our input. The ‘if’ is minute, and the ‘then’ is massive.

Abraham’s intercession for Sodom highlights this point. The fulfillment of the conditions originally required only fifty righteous people in the entire city. This already small requirement diminished to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, and then twenty. In the end, the Lord would spare the entire population IF only ten were righteous. The conditions went from very small to miniscule, while the outcome remained significant.

The small nature of God’s conditions demands an extra measure of individual responsibility (see the prior post – https://prayatlunch.us/free-riders/). Since the ‘if’ is so small, your contribution may be the difference between conditions fulfilled and conditions failed. Consider the following illustration related to Genesis 18. Maybe there were nine righteous found in Sodom, and one individual who was on the fence. Maybe that person thought that they could remain undecided or undedicated without consequence, straddling righteousness and worldliness. In the end, their decision to stop short of righteousness yielded horrible consequences. One person’s disobedience made all the difference.

PLEASE PRAY THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN WOULD RECOGNIZE HIS PERSONAL ROLE IN FULFILLING GOD’S SMALL CONDITIONS. You may be the proverbial tenth person in God’s plan for America today, and your absence will make all the difference.

Romans 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

The word “if” should give us great comfort. Not only does the Bible use it to introduce a contingent promise from God in II Chronicles 7:14 that yields a certain outcome with the meeting of the listed conditions, but it also gives Christians assurance and encouragement in verses like Romans 8:31.

This phrase places the conditions upon God, with the artful use of a rhetorical question to provide certainty of those conditions. God is for us. With that in mind, there is nothing to fear. We will face no meaningful opposition with God on our side, because there is nothing that He cannot handle. He has already met the conditions and the outcome is certain.

What shall we say to ourselves when we are confronted by strong opposition? No one can be against us. What shall we say to one another when the world is attacking us? No one can be against us. What shall we say to the devil as he tries to sow seeds of doubt and discouragement?   No one can be against us. What should our testimonies indicate as we live in a world filled with hostility? No one can be against us.

God has met the conditions. He is for us. We have nothing to fear, because in this case He is responsible for both meeting the conditions and fulfilling the promises. We should live boldly because of it.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO LIVE WITH THE ASSURANCE OF A GOD THAT IS FOR US. With God for us, nothing that is against us should cause us concern.

II Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall 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.”

We are only one small word away from the Lord healing our land. The word “if” is a simple conjunction that introduces a conditional clause. In this case, it introduces a contingent promise from the Lord Himself. Based on the rules of logic and grammar, the Lord WILL heal our land IF we meet the four conditions outlined in the first half of this verse. If the conditions are met, then the outcome is certain. Yet, meeting the conditions is up to us.

So what happens if we fail to meet those conditions? This verse and the rules of logic and grammar do not prevent the Lord from fulfilling this promise without us. Yet, the use of the word “if” carries with it a strong implication. In fact, Merriam-Webster defines “if” in the following way: it is “used to say that something MUST happen BEFORE another thing can happen. (emphasis added)” In other words, the conditions are necessary for the outcome to be met … if not, then not.

Christians are left with two choices: 1) meet the contingencies and be assured of the outcome, or 2) fail to meet the contingencies and risk an uncertain outcome at best or preclude the outcome at worst.   It is far better to travel down the path of “if” instead of risking a continuation of the status quo that is characterized by “if not”.

PLEASE PRAY THAT CHRISTIANS WOULD TAKE SERIOUSLY OUR ROLE IN THE CONTINGENT PROMISES OF GOD. If we meet God’s contingencies, then the Lord promises nationwide revival. If.