“Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of the Lord, your God, and cry to the Lord.”

In this verse the prophet gives us the remedy for the trouble in the land. He tells the elders to set apart time and space to hold a fast. It is to be a solemn assembly and there will be tears and regret. To be sorry for our sin we have to feel it, repent and experience the delivering power of God. When we cry to the Lord he hears us. 

All the leaders, the elders and the people were in this together. It is important that we become part of a group of God’s people so that they can help us and hold us accountable for what we do and say. We can find ourselves running away and not really facing our misdeeds and failures and therefore not really growing in the Christian life. It is crucial to have discipled inner lives because we easily fall into bad habits and start to take short cuts and become lazy. When we are tired our thought processes can become oppressive to us and drag is down. It is crucial that we rehearse the truths of God and not depend on our feelings. 

It is really important to meet with the people of God, to worship with them and be taught and encouraged from the Word of God.  

We are close to the Lord in His house and it is good to meet there. Solomon was given the task of building the temple and he did it with such care and love that it was an amazing place to be, where the glory of the Lord was celebrated and the beautiful of the decoration reflected the beauty of the Lord. 

As we go to the house of God, let us get ourselves ready to worship and learn and rejoice with the sisters and brothers in Christ. Let us reflect openly the goodness of the Lord and His great love for us. We sanctify ourselves to Him and walk worthy of the Lord.