Revival Prayer Pointers

161 through 180

Week 161: Our He Is Worthy! emphasis continues today with a theme of sacrifice.  The pursuit of revival and renewal will almost always demand some kind of sacrifice from us.  That happens when God becomes central to our lives—other things, activities, even people become of lesser importance when God becomes more important.  The Apostle Paul said “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord . . . .”  (Phil. 3:8)  As we pray for revival this week, let’s ask God to show us what we might need to sacrifice in the pursuit of revival.  

Week 162: The psalmist says “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Ps. 118:24)  Let’s pray this week that God will help us rejoice in what He is doing while we wait for what He will do.  Ask Him to show you the ways in which He is already at work in your life and in the life of our church.  Where can He show us inklings of His work in our midst—God sightings—that remind us of His presence and ministry.  The seeds of revival may already be present in our lives.  Let’s not miss them!  

Week 163: Many of us pray every week for revival in our church and in our lives.  Can we do more?  What would that “more” look like?  As we get ready to start the journey into the Church Year—into the Story of God, it might be a good to time to ask God to show us what “more” might look like.  Let’s ask Him to show us what needs to happen in our lives and in our church to prepare us for the work He wants to do here at FBC. 

Week 164: During the first week of Advent, we celebrate the hope we have in God’s promise of His Son.  We remember that Jesus came into our world.  We remember that He has come into our lives.  We remember that He is coming again.  Hope sustains us until He returns.  That same hope keeps us as we await His moving in our lives to bring revival to us.  Ask God to sustain your hope in His ability to bring revival as you pray for that revival this week. 

Week 165: The second week of Advent reminds us of God’s love for us.  Advent also reminds us of the promise that His love would come to us in human, visible form.  (Read 1 John 4:10)  God’s love for us never changes, but the Apostle John teaches us in The Revelation that we can leave our “first love.”  When we pray for revival, we’re actually praying for a return to our “first love,” the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let’s pray during the Advent season that God will meet us and restore our “First Love.”

Week 166: The third week of Advent centers our thoughts on joy.  Revival often brings joy, and it is often the absence of joy that makes us aware of our need for revival.  We’ll spend time with the prophet Zephaniah this week.  He tells the people if Judah to rejoice because God is going to restore them.  Restoration and revival have common bonds in God’s work.  Before we pray for revival this week, let’s examine our “joy level.”  Might the lack of God’s joy in our souls indicate a need for revival?

Week 167: In the scheme of things, the Revival Prayer Initiative may seem like a small thing.  The Advent season reminds us that great things come from small things.  Jesus was not born in Jerusalem—the center of power.  He was born in Bethlehem, a tiny little village with no significance.  As we pray for revival this week, let’s remember the title of an old song: Little Is Much when God Is in It.  This “little” initiative, at some unexpected time, may explode into something bigger than any of us can imagine. 

Week 168: We’ll come to the Lord’s Table next Sunday, the first time in 2010.  This week between Christmas and  the New Year gives us a good time reflect on the year almost gone and the year almost here.  Let’s take this week to sit with God, asking Him to help us think through our lives—what needs to be left behind?  What needs to come into our lives as we pursue revival and renewal?  How can we better pursue those things that are excellent? (Philippians 1:9-11)

Week 169: On this first Sunday of 2010, let’s pray for God’s work in our lives and in our church in this New Year.  All of us who participate in the Revival Prayer Initiative have committed fifteen minutes per week to this effort.  God may challenge us to do more than that this year.  If He does, each of us must choose whether or not to accept the challenge. As we pray this week, let’s review the question: How badly do we want to see revival come to our lives and our church?  That is the key question we must answer.

Week 170: “I have set the Lord always before me . . . .”  (Ps. 16:8a)  Hungering for revival must be more than hit and miss hunger.  The psalmist teaches us that our hunger for God is an all-consuming, continuous hunger that never goes away.  Do we know that kind of hunger?  Let’s pray this week that God will place a growing and deepening hunger for His work in our lives and in our church.

Week 171: John the Baptist was preaching prior to Jesus coming on the scene.  We saw the line from Luke 3:15 last Sunday: Now as the people were in expectation . . . .  The people to whom John preached hadn’t know expectation for a long time.  Are we like them?  Do we pray without expectation that God will hear and respond?  Before we pray this week, let’s ask God to give us a spirit of expectancy—a confident hope that He’ll hear the cry of our hearts and send revival!

Week 172: When John the Baptist came on the scene, he preached a message of repentance.  God was preparing a new work, but the people needed repentance before that work could take root in their lives.  A reading of the history of revival in Scripture and in history teaches us one thing.  Repentance always preceded revival.  Many believe the American church desperately needs a spirit of repentance; perhaps it’s true of The First Family, too.  Before we pray for revival this week, let’s ask God to show us where we need repentance in our lives and church.

Week 173: Last Tuesday evening, many of us met for our first Revival Prayer Gathering.  We looked at 2 Chronicles 7:14 and then spent time praying in response to the teaching.  We prayed prayers of humility, prayers declaring our great need, prayers of confession and repentance and prayers of expectation.  Join those who were here Tuesday evening in similar prayers this week.

Week 174: Take a few minutes to read Isaiah 6:1-8 before praying for revival this week.  God did an amazing thing in Isaiah’s life that day when he encountered the Living God.  It seems that Isaiah didn’t expect what happened, but He had the presence of mind to respond appropriately.  How about us?  How might we respond if God supernaturally invades our lives when we pray this week?  Think about it! 

Week 175: We move into the Lenten season this Wednesday, February 17.  In the history of the church, it has been a time for self-examination and preparation.  The early church saw these 40 days as a time for preparation, much like Jesus experienced during His 40 days of temptation at the beginning of His public ministry.  Let’s use the Lenten season as a time of self-examination and preparation that can help us pursue revival and renewal in our lives and in our church.  A simple prayer can start the process:  I yield myself, Father, to the gracious work of your Holy Spirit.  Examine my life and change it as you will. 

Week 176: From the earliest days of the Christian church, forgiveness has held an important place in the Lenten season.  As we examine ourselves and offer ourselves anew to our Savior, we confront the need to give and receive forgiveness.  These acts of forgiveness have great bearing on our pursuit of revival.  It would do us well before we pray for revival this week to ask God to show us those people we need to forgive and those from whom we need to ask forgiveness.  It’s not easy, but it prepares us to celebrate the resurrection and brings us closer to revival.

Week 177: Repentance is a key component of the Lenten season and the pursuit of revival.  When the prodigal son “came to himself,” (Luke 15:17) he returned to his father and asked to be nothing more than a servant.  His “coming to himself” was the change of mind that repentance produces.  Before we pray for revival/renewal this week, it would do us well to ask God if anything in our lives warrants repentance—a change of mind—that brings us to godly obedience. 

Week 178: Waiting is a significant practice in Scripture.  We are encouraged to “wait on the Lord.”  It seems somehow that God often allows us to wait some length of time before coming to the aid of His people.  We know God doesn’t cause the waiting maliciously, but He does allow the waiting.  Isaiah tells us “Then you will know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.”  How long are we willing to wait for revival?  Think about that before you pray this week.

Week 179: The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us to lay aside everything that might hinder us from running the race to which we’ve been called.  Let’s read Hebrews 12:1&2 before we pray this week.  We might want to think about asking God to show us any “weights” or “sins” that ensnare us and hinder His work of renewal and revival in our lives.  The pursuit of revival is intentional.  It almost never happens until people are serious about “running the race!”

Week 180: Sometimes it may seem that we really don’t think we need revival.  Our self-sufficiency and independence get in the way.  Consider the words of the psalmist in Ps. 39:4.  “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.”  Choosing to confess our “frailty” will help us travel the road to revival.  Let’s pray that way this week!