Someone is rapidly wheeled into the emergency room in critical condition. Elsewhere a person is on the operating table, and the surgeon is doubtful of the outcome. In both cases the heart monitor begins to register a flatline. The families of the patients begin to sink into despair as it looks like their loved one has died. Then something changes. Perhaps the ER staff uses a defibrillator, or the surgeon injects a new medication, and life returns. We’ve all seen this on medical dramas on TV, and perhaps even faced it in real life. Once thought dead, a person is revived, and is now alive. As wonderful as that is, it is even more so when there is revival in the soul! In the middle of our psalm today we read the prayer the psalmist makes for revival (vs 6).
What is revival? We all know what it is in the physical realm. A person, animal, or even a plant comes near to death, from all outward appearances looks dead, but is revived back to active life. In the spiritual realm when a person accepts Jesus as Savior, they are born again to a new life in Christ. Some believers, however, after a while start to drift away from the Lord and begin to live like they did before they were saved. From all outward appearances they look like the lost. They need to be brought back into a right relationship with the Lord. They need a spiritual defibrillator!
Revival is restoring a right relationship with God, where we delight in Him, and celebrate his goodness, love, and mercy. Revival comes when the Holy Spirit begins working in individual hearts, bringing a return to God with passion and zeal, and is based on Biblical truth. Revival is not the same as salvation. If something has never been alive, it cannot be revived. If one is spiritually dead, they need to accept Jesus and the salvation He offers. Revival is bringing a straying child of God back into the fold, and this is what the psalmist is praying for God to do in verse 6. When we were first saved, God forgave us our sins, and turned His wrath and anger away from us (vs 1-3). Some Christians, though, begin to drift away from the Lord, and need to be restored into a right relationship again (vs 4). If we return to the Lord, He promises to revive us after we have strayed (vs 6-7).
As we look around, we see that specific believers need a revival, and also churches do, both individual congregations, and also whole denominations. Whole countries also need revival, as there are some countries who were once solidly Christian, but have now strayed so far away from their Christian roots. Revival begins with strong Christians praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They pray for the believers who have strayed, and for the churches who have grown cold and lifeless to be revived. When this happens it will slowly spread from church to church, and an actual Revival can break forth, turning churches, neighborhoods, and cities around for the Lord. When believers return wholeheartedly to the Lord, and begin truly living for Him, the lost take notice. The Holy Spirit begins to move in their hearts, as well, and many souls come to salvation.
There have been several great revivals in the United States in the past, often called the Great Awakenings, and revivals in other countries around the world. Revivals like these begin when Christians seriously beseech the Lord for their fellow believers, the church, and the lost. As the great old-time hymn, “Revive Us Again”, says, written by a man who had strayed but returned to the Lord, we need to be in prayer for the Holy Spirit to come and revive the sleeping church and bring the lost to salvation.
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