Revival

O LORD . . . revive thy work in the midst of the years.

Habakkuk 3:2

Have you ever seen someone unconscious? Such a person will usually have vital signs but is not aware of anything that is occurring. There is also a lack of any perception of reality.

There is a difference between revival and resuscitation. Resuscitation is used on a person who is dead and whom the doctors are trying to bring back to life. Revival is for a person who is alive but unconscious. Spiritually, we can be unconscious and completely out of touch with the Spirit of God. We may be unaware of the God who made us and what He wants to do in and through us.

When one comes to Christ in faith and is born again, he or she is brought back from the dead into life. But when revival occurs, a person who is already a Christian is brought back from the brink of apathy, of taking God for granted, of ignoring God and trying to live under one’s own power and strength. This can be deadly for others, because the Christian in need of revival is not producing any fruit for God. “I’ve got mine and that’s all that matters” is not an attitude that is pleasing to God.

If we are to see a revival in our nation, it must begin in the hearts of individual believers. As the hymn says, “Lord, send a revival and let it begin with me.” What are you doing in your daily walk with God that will bring revival to your life—and the lives of others?

Our Father and our God, I pray for Your forgiveness and mercy. I know that I need to be revived from apathy in certain areas of my spiritual life. Please renew my spirit, Lord. Build a fire within me again that will warm the hearts of others around me. I pray this through Jesus, my constant Companion. Amen.

Billy Graham, Unto the Hills: A Daily Devotional (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2010).