Why is there famine in this land?

"Why is there famine in this land?" David asked God. The Lord answered
David, "It is on account of Saul and his blood stained house, it is because
he put the Gibeonites to death." (2 Samuel 21:1 KJV)

Years earlier Joshua had been order by God to kill all His enemies when the
Israelites entered the promised land. However, when Joshua came upon the
Gibeonites, they deceived him and told them that they were just travelers in
the land and begged Joshua not to slay them. Joshua went a step further and
signed a treaty with them that protected them from everyone. That led to
intermarriage and all sorts of other problems that kept the Israelites
obedience and worship of God contaminated.

Years later, Saul made the situation worse when he ordered all the
Gibeonites killed. David, knowing that problems, strife and even famine can
have a spiritual cause, went to God and asked God to reveal what was causing
the famine. After David had received the answer from God, he entered into
intercessory prayer and repented on behalf of those who had offended God
all the way back to Joshua. He repented on behalf of a nation and God
honored his prayer and repentance and the famine was lifted.

If you have things in your life that plague you continuously. If you always
have strife and life is hard and the blessings of God are far and few
between and you are just not receiving your harvest from God, then perhaps
you need to do what David did. Get on your face before God and ask Him to
reveal the source of your difficulty. God will allow strife and conflict in
our life to get our attention. If you seek God in prayer, He is faithful to
answer. He will allow things to come to your mind that need addressing. It
can be things that you have done personally that you have not repented for.
To many of us just say, "Well, good old Jesus died for me so anything I do
is covered." DO NOT ever presume to take Jesus for granted. Repentance is
a daily must. And it must not be done casually. Once you seek God and
repent, He can then open the gates of heaven to meet your needs. And God
may show you that it may have been an act of a family member, or someone in
your church family that has brought about this road block that is impacting
your life. Do what David did. He DID NOT throw a finger pointing party and
tell God ....well...Joshua started it! Or it was old Saul that caused it.
He got on his knees and told God that no matter who started it, he needed to
finish it. So he prayed to God with a repentant heart as if he himself had
done the offense against God. God will receive your intercession and the
famine will be lifted from your land. God is always faithful to accept
heart felt prayer and repentance. He is our Father and He loves to
fellowship with us. But we must learn to make the path clear for Him to act
on our behalf. His righteousness must always be honored.

Need your famine lifted? Pray for it!