10/05/2024
Desire for Rivival
Isaiah 64:1 Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence!
These words have often been used in prayer for revival, and there is no revival without such prayer. “History is silent,” says J. Edwin Orr, “about any great revivals that did not begin in prayer.”
The need for revival comes home to God’s people in ways which are reflected in this chapter. The pollution of sin has affected life and worship: “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (verse 6). There is a sluggishness about seeking God and no sense of his immediate presence: “No once calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us” (verse 7).
The hope for revival ultimately rests on the fact that it comes from God (verse 4). Revival is God coming down, not men - even earnest Christian men - working it up. A consciousness of their relationship to him encourages his people to pray for this: “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand . . . Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people” (verses 8-9).
“Desire for revival is one thing, confident anticipating that our desire will be fulfilled is another.” That is a remark that should not lead us to despair but to prayer.
Prayer: lord I pray for your presence to be mighty in our lives and families in Jesus name.
God bless you