The churches came to a place of repentance and joined together in prayer – putting all selfish agendas aside and confessing the sin of themselves, the church and the nation. Something began to happen. As the churches heeded the call to come together in the unity of Christ Jesus and to repent of all evil and sin an amazing revival began to take place.
It is a well-known biblical and historical fact that throughout the history, restoration of nations never happens before repentance. And every time repentance happened restoration took place.
It simply cannot and will not happen in the reverse. God was going to destroy the great city of Ninevah and in His mercy and grace sent a very reluctant Jonah to preach repentance. We all know the story and in the end the prophet went and did God’s bidding and the people listened and repented and a catastrophe was averted.
Will Zimbabwe heed God’s call to repentance today? Will the leaders of the Christian church and community heed the call to, “Gird yourselves and lament, you priests, wail, you who minister before the altar.
Come, lie all night in sackcloth and ashes. You who minister to my God. ……Consecrate a fast and call a sacred assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land, into the house of the Lord your God and cry out to the Lord. …… Let the priests who minister to the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar.” (Joel)
No wonder the fallow ground remains unbroken. No wonder our crooked ways remain unstraightened. Our hearts remain hardened and unbroken before the Lord. Where are the prophetic voices to the nation? Let our cry for the gift of repentance go up to the throne room of Heaven and let us call for God to open blind eyes so that we may see and to unstop deaf ears so that we may hear and to soften hard hearts so that we may repent and turn to Him with all our hearts, with fasting, weeping and mourning.
Surely then, for God is gracious and merciful, restoration and healing can begin – to His glory. – A weeping Hannah, Harare
Post published in: Letters to the Editor