Revive us again!

Have you ever been in a dry place? Maybe you feel stuck in sadness or bitterness, distant from God, or just plain tired? You know the Word. You know what you should be doing but for whatever reason, you just can’t get it together. You just feel…off. What do you do? What is it? When will it end? Sometimes, the Church gets like that. We need someone to pump us up. Our services are dry and dead. It seems like no one has a testimony or a shout. It’s actually pretty draining when your well runs dry and you’re pushing and pressing but can’t seem to break through. Well today, God wants us to wake up! It’s revival time!

This past week or so, I’ve been struggling in my early morning prayer time. It seemed like I couldn’t get through the whole time without falling asleep. As I thought about it, it was reflective of all of my time with the Lord this week. My study time, my worship, everything was a struggle. You know we can blame the devil for everything but sometimes it’s us! Now, he will take advantage of the openings that we leave for him but I had to be honest with myself and say it was me. This morning, I said "Oh no! I'm orbiting out of this galaxy of foolishness!" I cried out to the Lord for a revival! I told Him that I couldn’t be satisfied with worship, prayer, and life as usual. I wanted more. Have you ever wanted more from God? Sometimes you have to chase after it and not settle for waiting for it to come to you.  You see revival is not for the world. Revival is for God’s people and His church! It’s personal and if we all grab hold, the world would be changed!

Psalm 85 is a great prayer/song of restoration in the Old Testament. The people had been freed from their captivity in Babylon but it seemed that they had not received their full restoration from the Lord so they went before Him for revival! The first 3 verses remind God of what He has done and then goes on to ask how much longer. We then find the request for revival so that the turnaround can happen.  Isn’t that like us? God brings us out over and over again but yet in our flesh, we fall back into what we have been delivered from. God heals our hearts, we bring up old pains. God blesses us, we think about what we still don’t have. God delivers us, we find a new habit.  But today, we are not going to be satisfied with that any longer. We want to be refreshed and restored! We are crying out to God, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?” (Ps. 85:6 NKJV)

Do you remember the old hymn, Revive Us Again? My favorite verse in the song is “Revive us again; Fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.” Doesn’t it make you want to sing? “Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again!” This morning I am asking the love of God to rekindle our souls with fire from above! God, set fire to personalities and the faces of man! Spark a fire in us that we might worship You like never before! Stir up the gifts inside of us, that we might use them to change the atmosphere around us. Fresh fire, fresh anointing, fresh wind! Revive us, O God! When we grab hold of revival and let the Holy Spirit work on us, favor and restoration comes! “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.” (Ps. 85: 10-13 NIV) Doesn’t get much better than that!

I challenge you to seek God’s face like never before! Do what it takes to get there – soak, pray, take a day off to rest. Whatever it is you need to do, do it! God is seeking true worshippers and you can’t give true worship with a dried up spirit! Revive us again, God!!

AMEN