Revival Prayer Pointers

131 through 140

Week 131: Listen to the words of the psalmist in Ps. 140:17: As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.  You are my help and deliverer; do not delay, O my God!  We are the psalmist, poor and needy.  We wait for His help, taking hope in the knowledge that we are in His thoughts.  As we pray this week, it is appropriate to ask that He will come to help us without delay.

Week 132: Why do people like us need to think about revival—pursue revival?  Proverbs 23:17 may have part of the answer to that question: Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all day.  The weight of the world and the work of the wicked one can cause us to do what this verse teaches us to avoid and not to do what it tells us to pursue.  When that happens, we need revival! 

Week 133: This is Friend Day at FBC.  We’re celebrating the joy of friendship—especially the reality of friendship with God.  All of us have experienced the loss of a friendship, whatever the reason.  Revival suggests that our friendship with God has somehow diminished and needs to be restored.  It might be good, before we pray for revival this week, to reflect on our relationship with God.  Is it growing or in decline?  Have we neglected nurturing that friendship?  Think about it with the rest of your church family.  

Week 134: Scripture is often very pointed in its instruction.  The Apostle Paul writes, “So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12)  When we stand before God to give that account, we’ll have no excuses.  All of us know it’s coming.  That knowledge is a good thing if it prompts us to live in a way that prepares us for the accounting.  Knowing that we’re accountable pushes us to pray for revival in our lives and our church since that renewal/revival helps make us ready to “give an account.”

Week 135: Ezekiel speaks an interesting line in his prophecy: Therefore turn and live! (18:32)  Many Christians live beneath their calling because they get caught up in things of lesser value.  Revival calls us to “turn and live!” as God intended us to live.  We’re called to turn from those things that hinder our walk with Jesus.  We’re also called to turn toward those things that build us up in the most holy faith.  Let’s ask God this week to show us where we need to turn so that we may live as He designed us to live.

Week 136: Revival is the renewal of our inner man—the part of us that can know, love and serve God.  When we seek revival we acknowledge that our inner man is in need of renewal.  We can pursue that renewal because we know God’s Spirit is at work in us for that purpose.  2 Corinthians 4:16 tells us that we need not lose heart because “ . . . the inward man is being renewed day by day.”  Don’t lose heart at you pray for revival!  Let’s continue to pray for God’s renewing work in our inner man. 

Week 137: We’ve been thinking about the world during the month of May.  We have been praying for revival for 137 weeks.  The two things are not disconnected from each other.  A church experiencing revival will love the world God loves; it will do all it can to engage that world for God’s glory.  If you’re not longing for revival already, will you pray this week that God will give you that longing?  It is the only way you will know true joy.  It is also the only way this church will love the world for which Christ died.

Week 138: Over the last two Sundays, without either of us knowing what the other was doing, Jayson Casper and I both used Romans 8:29 as texts for our messages.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son . . . . If we do not see that conformation at work in our lives, we are in need of renewal and revival.  Before we pray for revival this week, let’s ask God’s Spirit to show us where we need more of the likeness of Christ in our lives.  Then let’s pray for that work to begin in us!  

Week 139: Spend some time in Colossians 3 this week.  The first seventeen verses speak to the issue of revival.  Part of what happens when God does a work of renewal in us involves what we get rid of and what we build into our lives.  Colossians 3 speaks to those kinds of things.  After reading and praying through the verses, let’s allow God’s Spirit to show us anything and everything that needs to be subtracted or added to our lives for His glory.  

Week 140: One hundred-forty weeks is a long time to pray for the same thing!  Rest assured you aren’t the only one praying.  You may not be the only one who wonders if revival will ever come.  The children of Israel waited forty years for God to move them into the Promised Land.  Some got discouraged; others remained faithful.  If you’re discouraged about praying for revival, this may be the week to pray for renewed hope.  Let’s not quit praying while we wait for God to work!