Pray and Pray and Pray!

It seems that every year as we approach the National Day of Prayer, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is brought out, dusted off, and applied to the United States as a sort of talisman whereby we can ensure the continued prosperity of our country. Some claim that this verse teaches that if Christians pray, then God will make America prosperous and restore Christian morality to this once Christian country. This and other similar teachings of this verse are wrong and do not accurately deal with the verse in its context and in its specific application.
In understanding any verse in the Bible, the first thing to realize is that context is king. That means we have to know what is happening in the verses surrounding the verse in question in order to have a clear grasp on the meaning of the verse.
2 Chronicles 7 is a response to 2 Chronicles 6, in which Solomon is praying a dedication over the newly built temple. Hear some of Solomon's words:
"Listen to the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel when they pray toward this place; Hear from Your dwelling place, from heaven; hear and forgive." (6:21)
"If your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this house... When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess You name, and turn from their sin when You afflict them... If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer of supplication is made by any man or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain, and spreading his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men, that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You have given to our fathers." (6:24, 26, 28-31)
In the context, Solomon is recognizing a promise which Moses gave to the people of Israel. Namely, God will bless you if you obey His commands and He will curse you if you disobey His commands (see Deuteronomy 27-31). In Moses' last instructions to the people, he warned them of the cycles of judgment that God would bring upon them if they did not walk in all His ways. Recognizing this and the people's propensity to rebelling against God's ways (see the Judges), Solomon requested that God act with mercy toward His people when, in the midst of the curse against their rebellion, they repented and called upon His name.
With this context as the backdrop of chapter 7, we then need to recognize that verse 14 is a central verse in a longer section recording God's answer to Solomon. God's response is:
"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually." (7:12-16) God's response continues in the following verses in a more personal message to Solomon, but verses 12-16 are a direct response to Solomon's prayer and form the immediate context of verse 14.
What is the basic theological statement of 2 Chronicles 7:14?
First, we understand that God is holy and as such must judge sin. This is not an option for God; His nature demands the judgment of all sin. In the New Testament and for the Church we must recognize that this judgment was levied against the Person of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). However, we also must recognize that God does discipline His erring child (Hebrews 12:7-11).
Second, we must realize that the Holy God who must judge sin is also the Merciful God who is willing to forgive the sin of the penitent (1 John 1:9).
What kind of application can we then make for the Church in America?
If God was required by His very nature to judge the sin of Israel, His covenant people, by cursing their property, their livestock, and their persons, then God owes America nothing better considering He has no covenant with us as a nation. As a nation, we have turned our backs on the Judeo-Christian ethic upon which this nation was founded. We have invested ourselves in every form of evil from ages past and have spent ourselves inventing knew evil. We have called good evil and evil good. Every judgment of Romans 1 against the wickedness of humanity is point by point an indictment against our nation. Do we deserve anything less than the strictest, harshest judgment of the Holy God?
What must we do? What can we do if we desire to avoid the pending doom of our nation?
"If My people, which are called by My name (the New Testament Church), shall humble themselves (recognize and mourn for their sin and the sin of their country), and pray (beg for mercy from the Holy God and Righteous Judge), and seek My face (strive to enter the Presence of God and to know Him, the only true God in which is eternal life; John 17:3), and turn from their wicked ways (repent of the lifestyle of sin which we had been living, which brought the judgment, and willfully follow God's ways); then will I hear from heaven (God's eyes will be open and His ears attentive to our prayers, a powerful statement when we recognize the transcendence of God coupled with His desire to be intimate with us), and will forgive their sin (whatever the sin was which produced the judgment, God will remember it no more; Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12), and will heal their land (God's judgments against Israel were specifically against the physical property of the people, i.e. famine, locust, and pestilence. This speaks of a reversal of the curse, an end of the judgment).
We must understand that 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not a promise from God that if Christians pray for a political renewal or economic resurgence, that God will bless America. Instead, it is a promise that if Christians recognize and repent of the sinful, idolatrous lifestyles that we live, then God will end or at lest waylay impending judgment.
The prophet Daniel understood this. In Daniel 6:10, "Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously."
In Daniel 9:3-5, "So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes (humility). I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, 'Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from You commandments and ordinances.'"