No short cuts

I am an avid reader and I love stories. My biggest temptation in reading any book is to get half way through and read the end. Part of this is that I don’t want to waste my time getting involved with the characters and all their trauma’s if having gone through all that, the story has a miserable end. I like to know that any problems that the characters have are resolved.

Most revival stories begin with outlining the desperate state of the church, the lack of converts, the levels of morality and the prevailing social evils of their time. We tune in because in our own day we mourn the complacency of the saints, we are burdened by the lack of evangelistic results and the fact that God is ignored or mocked in our land. We identify with the people who turned to God and cried out for change and we are inspired by the fact that their need was met, their prayers were answered, their issues were resolved. The amazing outpouring of the Spirit upon them inspires us to believe such things might be possible among us.

However there is a huge temptation to by-pass the middle bit of the story. We misunderstand what people are actually experiencing when the Spirit is poured out. One of the characteristics of all genuine revivals is a terrible conviction of sin that grips people and their turning to God for mercy. What we want so often is blessing, approval and the relief of knowing that all our labours for the kingdom have not been in vain. In praying for revival are we prepared for the Spirit to convict us of our nakedness, poverty and lack of love?

The other thing is the compassion in us often wants that our friends who are lost, not to have to go through the agony of conviction. We would rather point out to them that they need Christ to fill the God shaped hole in their lives than confront them with the fact that they need his mercy because they have severely offended him. We cannot by pass the cross in our evangelism or in our praying for revival. If we pray for revival we are praying for God to deal with our sin as much as we are praying for him to bless our efforts.

If you have made it thus far here are some revival quotes for today.

"We often have a tinted view of revival as a time of glory and joy and swelling numbers queuing to enter the churches. That is only part of the story. Before the glory and joy, there is conviction; and that begins with the people of God. There are tears of godly sorrow. There are wrongs to put right, secret things...to be thrown out, and bad relationships, hidden for years, to be repaired openly. If we are not prepared for this, we had better not pray for revival" (Brian Edwards)

"Tell me in the light of the Cross, isn’t it a scandal that you and I live today as we do?” (Alan Redpath)

love and prayers

Carol