Revive Us Again – Really? Is the concept of revival viable today for the church as we know it? Many consider the idea of “revival” to be an antiquated, outmoded concept in Christian culture, an artifact of a bygone era. As one person remarked, “revival? No, we are way out beyond that in the things of God. Hmm. Maybe if we are “way out beyond that, we are way out too far. In Psalms 85:6, the writer cries out to God for revival:
Psalms 85:6 Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?
The suggestion of revival implies that we are in a dormant state spiritually. Webster defines revival as “a strengthening and improving of a current condition – an awakening.” Is the church asleep? When Jesus agonized at Gethsamane, He discovered that His disciples needed revival:
[Luk 22:45 KJV] 45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,
Is the church sorrowful? Is it in a mournful, perplexed state? Paul had his own ideas about revival and the need to be spiritually awakened:
[1Co 15:34 KJV] 34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak [this] to your shame.
In Paul’s eyes, the key to being spiritually “woke” (to use a modern term) involves a renewed attention and focus on right standing with God and rejection of sin. If we are going to reject sin, we should know what it is. I would venture that the idea of sin is a relatively foreign concept today, especially among the younger generation. Not because they are particularly sinful, but because the older generation was so busy telling their children how wonderful they are that they forgot to teach them about the reality of sin and the need for salvation. If Mr. Rogers was right and we simply like everyone “just the way you are…” then there is no need for the death of the Cross, and salvation is an outmoded concept no longer applicable in a day when everyone you meet is “practically perfect in every way.”
We need an awakening today in a very personal and individual way. We need to wake up to the reality that the heart of man is deceitfully wicked, and no man can know it (Jer. 17:9). Too negative? Paul went to great lengths to establish the “exceeding sinfulness of sin” and its universal presence in all men’s lives:
[Rom 3:11-18 KJV] 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way; they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat [is] an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps [is] under their lips: 14 Whose mouth [is] full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet [are] swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery [are] in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
What is the solution? Jesus makes it abundantly clear:
[Jhn 15:3 KJV] 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
I like the song “I want to be born again – again…” We need an awakening today. We need, as Webster terms it by definition, “improvement and strengthening.” The world is dark out there because we are not the light that Jesus called us to be. The answer is not found in new strategies to bring people in or political saviors to correct societies’ woes. We need a revival. How does it come?
Ask yourself the question was there ever a time that you were closer to Jesus than you are right now? Write down three things that you know are not pleasing to God that needs to change. Start there. Pull back from pointing the finger of accusation. Forgive those who’ve wronged you. Humble yourself to the situation at hand. God dwells in the high and lofty place with the humble and contrite. Say in your heart right now “Father I humble myself to you and ask your forgiveness for __________, and _______, and ________. I know it sounds childish but come as a little child. It begins here and from that place of intentional contrition before God – revival – personal revival becomes possible.
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