Why does the church need to be revived? Sam Storms aptly describes the problem and
the need:[1]
Preachers teach the
Bible, and the people snore. Homemakers share their faith, and it falls on deaf
ears. Lives are broken and rarely get fixed. Bodies are suffering, and few are
healed. Marriages are dying, and people just give up. Temptations are faced,
and sin flourishes. The poor are hungry and stay that way.
I don’t mean to
sound overly pessimistic. There are some who think we’re doing fine, but most
of the people I know concede the church’s lamentable impact on the spirituality
of its members and its minimal influence on society at large. So, what’s wrong?
…I’m convinced the problem is power, or, should I say the absence of it.
…More than a few
would point not to the lack of power, but to the abysmal theological immaturity
in the church as the source of its struggle. I can’t argue with that. Biblical
illiteracy and theological naivete have reached epidemic proportions in the
church today. But more than knowledge is needed. Mere doctrine won’t suffice.
What the church needs is truth set aflame by the power of the Holy Spirit. What
the church needs is the divine energy of God himself bringing what we know to
bear on how we live and how we pray and how we love and how we witness. And
let’s not forget that teaching is itself a spiritual gift….
…the church
desperately needs an infusion of the supernatural activity of God into its life
and ministry.
This is why I am praying for revival and encouraging you to
join me. In the past couple posts I have unpacked Isaiah 58 to show us what the
empowered and revived life looks like. This same chapter in the Old Testament
also displays for us the fruits of revival as well. These eight products of
true revival give us direction for how to pray. So, once again, I will pray
through this passage and ask you to join me.
Lord, as your
Spirit works in your church, I ask that your light would break forth in our
darkness like the dawn (8a). We don’t know where to go, we don’t have a sense
of hope, we are so depressed (10b), and it usually feels like our little light
is but a smoldering candle. Don’t snuff it out. Fan the flame so that it burns
like the midday sun (10b) and so that others might see your glory in us.
Great physician we
often think that we are barely holding on. How can we offer the way, the truth,
and the life to those who are dying?
Give us health and strength (8b, 11c), and may your righteousness and
your glory protect us from all enemies (8c-d)—seen and unseen. May you apply
the medication of your grace and as we see this renewal, may we encourage each
other and may those without you sit up and take note of how you have done the
impossible in us and can do it in them also.
We confess that we
have wanted to go our own way, follow our own course, listen to our own wisdom.
So, work in us to want to follow you, direct us continually in the way we
should go (11a), satisfy us so we see there are truly no others who can satisfy
(11b), invigorate us and give life that produces more life in us and others
(11d).
Lord, we seek you
and your strength, we seek your presence continually that through us the ruins
of a crumbling, weak, rundown church can be repaired—may we rebuild the ruins,
raise up the strong foundations for many generations to come, may we restore
the streets of your living temple, and may we mend the broken walls that
surround your city, the Church (12)! May
we once again be a Christ-built, on-the-move-church against whom the gates of
hell cannot prevail!
And finally, Lord,
among a people who more often than not yawn at you, grant us the gift of
delight in you, bless us as you promised to do with the descendants of the
Patriarchs, and may we soar in your mission to your glory as if we are on the
wings of eagles (14)!
[1] Sam Storms, The
Beginner’s Guide To Spiritual Gifts (Ventura, Ca., Regal/Gospel Light, 2002), 9, 11, 17.
No comments:
Post a Comment