Time for Revival?

 

A friend says she strongly desires a sense of God’s presence. Others are deeply concerned, even fearful, of the spiritual vacuum in the world. More positive news is that many churches are overflowing with people seeking answers as our world gets messy with much sin and selfish attitudes and actions.

Today’s devotional reading is about one revival at the turn of the last century. It reminded me again that praying for revival is vital and needed, not only beginning with the people of God as some of them seem oblivious to that need, but for the millions who have ignored God and are suffering the consequences.

The Bible offers ways to pray for revival using God’s words to do it. One list (LINK) helps me and shows that revival begins in my own heart. These verses list how I can pray: 

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation… (Psalm 42:1–5)

Some verses need to be personalized by changing the pronouns as I pray, such as Psalm 51:1-10 for myself and Daniel 9 on behalf of all God’s people. Another passage is a lament for the state of my heart and for those who are experiencing sorrow and grief over the situations in their own lives and in their part of the world. It too can be paraphrased…

Father, I feel no peace and I’ve forgotten what it is to be joyful and prosperous. I feel as if all the goodness is gone from my life, everything I’d hoped to receive from You. I’ve been wandering and afflicted. I have experienced bitterness and pain. My soul is heavy and sad because of my sin and the sinful state of those around me. And yet, I know there is still hope. I know that Your love is so great, I won’t be overtaken by this fallen world. Your love never fails. Your compassion is new every day. Great is Your faithfulness! You are my portion in this life. I will wait humbly for Your deliverance, in the name of Jesus. Amen. (Lamentations 3:17-24)

Others are praying too, from well-known Christian leaders to unknown prayer warriors.Billy Graham prayed this way in 1997, a model for my prayers:

“Lord… remind us today that You have shown us what is good in what You require of us; to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. We ask that as a people, we may humble ourselves before You and seek Your will for our lives and for this great nation. Help us in our nation to work as never before to strengthen our families and to give our children hope and a moral foundation for the future. So may our desire be to serve You, and in so doing, serve one another. This we pray in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

I can pray simple yet bold prayers because of NT verses like this: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) I can also pray not just for my own heart but the revival need in my church and in all of God's people. I can also use song lyrics as prayer, hymns like “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” and “Revive Us, Again” and “Shine, Jesus, Shine.”

PRAY: Jesus, it is easier to talk/write about prayer than praying. That is only one revival need in my own heart. I’m leaving my desk to cry out to You about these things… 

The Great Physician knows how to cure me...

Slept well but woke up in a bad mood. I don’t like marble floors, opulent surroundings, rich food, heat and humidity, and a vacation filled with things to do. I just want to sit in the shade and read a book, or go for a long walk on the beach and enjoy a breeze and the shore birds. All about me and my I wants. Selfish and annoyed with all the selfish people around me. Go away. A deserted island would be ideal.

Today’s reading was no help. It was written for those who have no clue about the meaning of faith. I know what it means, so I went to my library and found this:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10–11)

This command from Jesus immediately restored my sense of why I am here. It is not to self-indulge but to serve Him by serving others, and glorify Him – even if others ignore me, or disregard anything I do or say on His behalf.

Another devotional speaks too, one that describes the difference between hypocrites and sincere souls. It says:

Sincere have learned to have a holy lack of confidence in themselves, also in their own self-examination. Therefore they ask the Lord to try them, as the psalmist did: “Search me, O God, and know my heart!… And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24) And God hears their prayer and points now to one, now to another thing in their lives which is contrary to the will of God. The result is sorrow, distress, and shame. And the soul’s hunger and thirst for grace is kept alive, yes, experiences a normal growth. Faith fights the good fight and keeps healthy and sound. The cross becomes a place of refuge.

How true. Just a few lines turned me from my desires for this vacation to yielding to Christ.

PRAY: Jesus, You are well aware of the rest I need and how best to give it to me. And it does not come from being contrary to You. That only makes me more tired and frustrated. Thank You for a speedy diagnosis and an even speedier change in my thinking and in my desires of what I’m to do while here in this place.

Sometimes “Me first” is the right thing

In spending time with relatives and friends who are Christian, I notice two serious matters. One is that others are quicker to be positive and filled with praise than I am. And two, I am quicker to find fault with others than they are. While we are not to compare ourselves with others, this is God convicting me to examine myself.

The devotional verse for today hints at this problem, as does one of its cross references.

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. (Proverbs 16:32)

A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. (Proverbs 25:28)

The author of the reading says, “More dear in the sight of God and His angels than any other conquest is the conquest of self, which each man, with the help of Heaven, can secure for himself.”

As I consider this and other verses and spiritual material, one article suggested that I pick one thing that stands out as a problem in my own life and focus on solving it. I selected discernment or judgment, which for me is a gift from God, but easily turns to a critical spirit. Discernment is important and given to Christians with the intent we use it to understand problems, issues, and the will of God concerning them. We need discernment to speak to needs (including my own) and to pray for others. 

However, the abuse of discernment is letting the flesh run with it — by being harsh, critical, and demanding. It is using wrongly what God reveals as a problem to pray for, using it as a topic for gossip or tearing down someone else so I will look better than they do. This is the kind of “judgment” that Jesus forbids when He says,

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1–2)

The rest of this passage says judgment is okay, but we first must have our own lives free from whatever faults we see in others. The idea of not judging until our own lives are in order runs contrary to that fleshy tendency to point out faults in those around us.

As Jesus says, the things I criticize most in others can be the very things of which I myself am guilty. I don’t like these sins and failures in me and seeing them in others reminds me of them. But instead of dealing with them in my own life, I focus my attention in the other direction. If I can keep my attention on someone else, I think I can avoid pressure on myself to change.

This is human pride, a large problem in the concept of self-control. If I am to rule my own spirit, then I need to engage in honest self-criticism. Whenever I am tempted to “discern a flaw” in someone else, I should first ask God to show me one of my own.

Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, KJV).

God shows me important steps toward self-control in the area of prideful discernment. 

Forgiveness. If I am honest with myself, I know how proud, selfish, spiteful, jealous, inconsiderate and inept I can be. What right do I have to be intolerant or impatient with others? Am I harboring the foolish notion that I am perfect and have never needed mercy and forgiveness myself? 

Look in the mirror. When I read the Word of God, apply it to myself — not just “first to me” but only to me. 

Check my altitude. Am I doing things that most other Christians avoid? Does this indicate that I think myself stronger and less apt to fall into temptation, as if I am some super saint? Be real; fly lower.

What about my eulogy? When I near death, will I have pleasant memories of the way I have lived? Or will I be filled with sorrow and regret?

What do others say? Pay attention to any criticism or accusations. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy” (Proverbs 27:6). Even if my enemies accuse me, the best response is to reflect and consider whether I am guilty of any charges against me. 

Use others as a mirror. Nothing is more common than for proud people to accuse others of pride. When I discern others’ faults, immediately consider that I most likely have the same shortfall in my own life. 

Remember the power of spiritual blindness. I know people can be proud, worldly, envious and unfriendly without knowing they are like that. Since I am a “people” I need to realize that others may see me more clearly than I see myself. Again, I need God to search my heart, particularly when I’m “discerning” the heart of another. If this discernment, He also gives a protocol for using it…  

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)

If I don’t follow His protocol by first dealing with my own sin, then I too need restoration because I also have fallen into temptation.

---

Father, You have been showing me that I’ve allowed my ADD to keep me from staying with the lessons You have taught me. Instead of popping to the next thing as I usually do, I want You to work on this issue of pride in discernment until You have developed in me that self-control over my spirit that You value. Whatever it takes.