“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him.”
– 2 Chronicles 16:9
What a verse. I remember the first time I ever read 2 Chronicles 16:9. Well, I don’t know if it was the first time I’d actually read this verse, but I just remember as a student, as a teenager, reading this verse and thinking, “Oh, I want God’s eyes to fall on me.” Don’t you want that? Even as I read it today in a fresh way, 2 Chronicles 16:9, God’s eyes running to and fro throughout the whole earth. He’s looking to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him.It’s like, don’t you want His eyes and His strong support to fall on you? To see you? Don’t we want hearts that are blameless toward God?
God, purify our hearts that we might be holy before you, blameless towards you.
2 Chronicles 16:9 Leads Us to Pray for Purity of Heart
Let’s just pray that. God, we want your eyes and your strong support to fall on each of us. Even right now as we pray, God, purify our hearts that we might be holy before you, blameless towards you. Jesus, we know this is only possible by your sacrifice for our sins, and through your righteousness credited to us. We want to live in the fullness of your righteousness. We want to live blameless. And we want to love you with our whole heart, with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all our strength. Also, we want to do that because of who you are. And because we know that life is found in loving you, and strong support is found in loving you.
So God, please, I pray this over my life. I pray this over each of our lives praying this together right now. We pray that your eyes that are running all over the world right now, looking for those whose hearts are blameless towards you, that your eyes and your strong support would fall upon us.
2 Chronicles 16:9 Leads Us to Pray for the Unreached
And even as we pray that and we think about your eyes running throughout the whole earth, we think about the Zuwara people today of Libya, who have no followers of Jesus among them. This Muslim people group, and such little access to the gospel in their language, the Nafusi language, and your strong support does not fall on them. Their hearts are not blameless towards you because they haven’t even heard how their hearts could be made whole through faith in Jesus.
God, we pray for the spread of gospel to the Zuwara people of Libya. God, we pray that they hear of the good news of your grace. Help them to hear the good news of your strong supporter. Oh God, see the Zuwara. And save them, we pray. Send laborers to them.
Send people, your people, from your church, to take the gospel to the Zuwara of Libya. God, use our resources toward that end, especially as we celebrating Christmas and giving so much to one another when we already have far more than we could ever want or need. God, help us to use our resources for the spread of your grace and your mercy and your gospel and your strong support throughout the whole earth, to all the nations. We pray all of this, in light of 2 Chronicles 16:9, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
