Desperation or Desolation?

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people..." 2Chronicles 7:13 (NIV)

This is the verse that precedes "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

What can we learn from that verse? It tells me that God has to go to great extremes to get our attention. If you look at America and much of the world today, Biblical values are systematically being removed from society. The Church cries "foul" but takes no action. We experience "natural disasters" at an alarming rate, but no one dares to say that God is trying to get our attention. So--God has to turn up the heat a notch--what will be next?

Someone from Uganda once said the Christians there had to choose between desolation or desperation. God is bringing pain to cause us to be desperate for Him. Are we going to sit back and watch as desolation overtakes us or will we become desperate and cry out to God for revival?