So if we genuinely want revival to come to our church, our
family, our community, and our nation, what should we be doing right now? Because, you see, we have become a people who
love to discuss and debate our problems, but we are seldom willing to make the
changes necessary to see those problems resolved. Most of the time, this reluctance is due to
the fact that change pinches. It costs
us something to make real substantive changes, and most of the time we are not
willing to make the necessary sacrifices to see change come.
Whether we are talking about race relations, economic
policies, political agendas or Oklahoma Football, most of us have a hard time
seeing the other side well enough to consider what it will take to bring about
change, restoration, unity and peace.
When it come to revival, the other side that needs to be
seen is God’s side of the issue. It is
God that is the only source of true revival, and it is God that places in our
hearts the desire for it. However, our
flesh has its own desires and fights valiantly to see them met. We tend to want it both ways. We want to do what our flesh drives us to do
while still enjoying the blessings of a close walk with God. We want to run as far away from Him and His
Word as we desire and then blame Him when He feels distant and aloof.
II Chron. 7:14 asks us to consider things from God’s
side. He has laid down a simple set of
instructions along with some very precise promises about the result. And those instructions simply ask us to put
aside the things that drive us to live fleshly lives, like our pride…”humble
themselves”…like our self-dependence…”and pray”…like our arrogant self-focus…”and
seek my face”…like our tenacious pursuit of the desires of our flesh…”and turn
from their wicked ways.” When we are
willing to put these things into practice, then He promises to hear, heal, and
forgive.
We have the tendency to ask God why bad things
happen to good people. The problem is,
there are no good people. We are all
sinners, so when we come to Him, we must come to Him in the right spirit and
the right attitude so that He can make us righteous. When that begins to happen among God’s
people, then we will see revival.
