When the Coal Miners Knelt

In the autumn of 1904, a twenty-six-year-old Welsh coal miner named Evan Roberts stood before a small congregation in Loughor and made a simple plea: bend, confess, repent, believe. No elaborate program. No celebrity speakers. Just the ancient formula God had given Solomon centuries earlier at the dedication of the temple.

Within weeks, something extraordinary swept through the valleys of South Wales. Pit ponies in the coal mines stopped responding to commands because the miners had stopped cursing — the animals no longer recognized the clean language of converted men. Pubs shuttered for lack of customers. Police formed quartets because they had nothing else to do. Magistrates received white gloves at court sessions, the traditional symbol meaning no cases to try.

The revival spread to over 100,000 conversions in less than a year — not through a slick campaign, but through the very sequence God outlined to Solomon: humbling, praying, seeking, turning.

What strikes me about 2 Chronicles 7:14 is the order. God does not say "clean up your act and then come talk to Me." He says humble yourselves first. Prayer follows humility. Seeking follows prayer. And turning — genuine repentance — follows seeking. Each step opens the door to the next.

The Welsh miners discovered what Solomon already knew: when God's people follow that sequence honestly, heaven responds. The land heals. Not because we earned it, but because the Almighty keeps His covenants.