Prescription For Revival

Song Lyrics – Third Day – Cry Out To Jesus

To everyone who's lost someone they love
Long before it was their time
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
Keeping you back from your life
You believe that there's nothing and there is no one
Who can make it right

Chorus

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
Love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They lost all of their faith and love
They've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

Chorus

When your lonely (when you're lonely)
And it feels like the whole world is falling on you
You just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus
Cry to Jesus

To the widow who suffers from being alone
Wiping the tears from her eyes
For the children around the world without a home
Say a prayer tonight

Chorus



God gave me this scripture both yesterday and today:

2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” It goes on to say, “Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”

Prescription for Revival:

For centuries Christians have viewed this ancient prayer-promise first given to Israel as a kind of prescription for revival in the church. What is revival? There are a lot of ways to think of it, but this could be a picture. Have you seen the photo booths at carnivals where people can put their head in holes over paintings of the bodies of muscle men and princesses and cowboys? The result usually is very funny. We may see our Grandma’s face on the body of a muscle man or our bookish uncle on the face of a pirate. The humor is in the strangeness. Sometimes the actual faces of the people who make up the church and the body of Christ, seem strange in the extreme. The result isn’t funny at all. Our faces are the way the Bible talks about our inner selves. They don’t look like they belong on Christ’s body and look very strange. Revival is what happens when spiritual vitality is restored in such a way that the faces and the body match again.

The prayer promise says there are four things that must happen for God to revive his people.

1. We must humble ourselves; renounce pride and self-sufficiency.
2. We must pray. Genuine prayer comes only from humility. We need to think of the classic postures of prayer such as hands folded, head bowed, hands open and raised toward heaven, face down, prostrate-all are postures of humility and deep dependence on God.
3. We must seek God’s face. God’s face is his inner self, or his heart. He shows it only to those who want to know him in a personal way. To seek God’s face is to have our first love restored.
4. We must turn from our wicked ways. The word is repent. We can not seek God’s face if we have been seeking something else.

The word prescription really isn’t a good word to use for this revival prayer promise. It is too much of the mechanical and automatic. If it helps to underline the certainty we have that God will keep his promise then keep the word, for he said, “then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

My Prayer: Heavenly Father, God Almighty – “Restore us again, O God our Savior …. Will you not receive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Psalm 85:4,6)