2 Chronicles 6:22

2 Chronicles 6:22 says, If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house;  Verse twenty-three adds, Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.  Solomon asked that if people had a disagreement with each other, that they bring it before God at the altar and He hear them from heaven and decide the issue.  He also asked that the guilty be punished and the one in the right be justified.  We need to allow God to settle our disagreements as Christians today, because He expects us as followers of Christ to be at peace with each other in the world. Verse twenty-four continues, And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house;  Solomon also acknowledged that the people of Israel might sin, and if they did, he asked that they return to God's house and confess and repent for their sins in the name of God.  It is not enough to just confess our sins if we don't repent, or turn away, from them.  Even though our sins are all washed away by the blood of Christ, as His followers we are still capable of sin, and if we do sin, we cannot just become indifferent to it.  We must still confess it and repent.  Verse twenty-five concludes, Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.  Solomon asked God to hear the confessions and requests for forgiveness from His people and restore them to the land He had given them.  As Christians, we never lose our everlasting salvation, but if we sin, we may lose our joy or our effectiveness in reaching people with the gospel, but when we confess our sins to God, we can be certain that He will forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him.  Verse twenty-six states, When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; yet if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them;  Solomon asked that if the people were being punished for their sins, in this case by having the rain withheld, that if they confessed and turned away from their sins that God would hear and forgive them.  Of course, he said if they did so before the temple, but we today can ask God for forgiveness wherever we are, and if we are truly repentant, He will forgive us and restore us to a right relationship with Him, whether our physical condition changes or not.  Verse twenty-seven adds, Then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou hast taught them the good way, wherein they should walk; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given unto thy people for an inheritance.  Solomon asked that God not only forgive the people and send the rain, but that He teach them the good way to live.  God is always going to guide us to the path of righteousness as followers of Christ, and then we simply have to not stray from it or return to it if we have strayed.  The Holy Spirit will guide and empower us to do this.  We are never to attempt to become righteous before God by our own abilities.  Verse twenty-eight continues, If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be:  Verse twenty-nine concludes, Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:  Solomon then expanded it from a lack of rain to pests destroying crops and the people suffering because of the sins of the people of Israel.   He again asked in this case that the people be forgiven and restored if they repented before the house of God.  Verse thirty says, Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:)  Solomon then asked this be done according to the hearts of the people, because God alone could know the heart of people.  God knows if our repentance is sincere today as Christians, because He knows our heart.  Verse thirty-one adds, That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.  Solomon also asked that once the people repented and were forgiven that they would walk in the path of God.  As Christians, if we sin and repent, God will restore us to the path of righteousness, but we will never lose our status as a child of God if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.