1 Kings 8:44

1 Kings 8:44 says, If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name:  The people were told that if they were in battle and were about to engage the enemy, to look toward the Temple and pray.  We today do not need to look toward a specific place and pray, because the Holy Spirit is always with us, but we do need to always pray before engaging the enemy.  Verse forty-five adds, Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.  Solomon asked God to hear their prayer and maintain their cause if they did this.  If we are praying in accordance with God's will, He will always hear our prayers and maintain our cause.  Verse forty=six continues, If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;  Solomon then asked that if the people sinned, which all people will do, that God deliver them to the enemy and send them away.  We don't pray this prayer today, and even though we are saved forever if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, He may allow us to be defeated in this world if we fall back into sin in order to make us realize that He is aware of our sins.  Verse forty-seven states, Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;  Solomon then talked about the people realizing their sin, repenting in the land of captivity, and asking God's forgiveness.  If we as Christians find ourselves held captive because of our sins today, we must first acknowledge our sins, then repent, and then ask God's forgiveness.  Verse forty-eight adds, And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:  Solomon continued by speaking about the people sincerely praying to God for forgiveness as they looked toward the Temple.  Again, we don't have to look toward a particular place today to find God's forgiveness, but we must sincerely call out to God in prayer in order to find it.  Verse forty-nine continues, Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,  Solomon asked God to hear their prayers for forgiveness and be with them.  God will always hear the prayers of His people, and if we have sinned and are asking for His forgiveness, He will always forgive us.  Verse fifty concludes, And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:  Solomon asked God to then have compassion on His people who had been carried away in captivity because of their sins.  God has always reached out to people out of compassion, and I believe that if we as Christians sin once again that He is always waiting with compassion to forgive us as soon as we repent and turn to Him again.  Verse fifty-one says, For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron:  Solomon said the people of Israel were God's chosen people that He had delivered from slavery in Egypt.  We as followers of Christ today are God's chosen people that He has delivered from the captivity of sin.  Verse fifty-two adds, That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee.  Solomon continued to ask God to hear and forgive His people if they sinned and repented, and He did then and always will.  Verse fifty-three continues, For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.  Solomon asked that God do this because He had separated the people of Israel to be His people. Today, we as followers of Christ have been separated from the rest of the world to be God's people, not because we are better than them by our own merit, but because God has redeemed us through the death of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross to bring us forgiveness for our sins.  Though He died for the sins of everyone, we must accept His gift of salvation by faith in order to be forgiven.