The Need for Revival

Lamentations 5:19–22 (HCSB)

      You, LORD, are enthroned forever;

      Your throne endures from generation to generation.

      Why have You forgotten us forever,

      abandoned us for ‹our› entire lives?

      LORD, restore us to Yourself, so we may return;

      renew our days as in former times,

      unless You have completely rejected us

      and are intensely angry with us.

 

Our great need today is for revival. Only One can give it: the LORD who sits upon the throne of the universe.

 

This should be our prayer for America: “LORD, restore us to Yourself, so we may return.”  We cannot return unless He restores us.

 

I was saved during a time of revival. God was moving in an unusual way. I remember the quality of preachers and teachers we had in those days.  We have great communicators today, but we sorely lack the depth of teaching the church once enjoyed. I pray that the Lord would renew our days as in former times.

 

It seems to me that we once had more lost people in church than we do today. But we did it without completely altering our services to make them feel comfortable. We sang from a hymnbook and the preacher wore a suit and tie, but lost people came—and they were saved. We were baptizing more in those days than we are today. Certain churches get unprecedented publicity when they have a service in which they baptize 100 people in a day, but we are way behind in baptisms overall.

 

I’m not saying we need to go back to the old days. I personally like worship where people don’t look down but look up. There is more freedom of expression today in worship. And even though we had some great preachers and Bible teachers in those days most people in the pews still didn’t get it. I cannot say there is any greater depth in our Christianity today than there was then. The spiritual immaturity of the average church-goer was just as frustrating then as it is today. But there are undeniable indications that more was going on then than now. I mentioned there were more people being baptized then than now. Churches were growing more then than now. Our Southern Baptist Convention is now in decline for the first time in our history. And there are far fewer young men and women who are surrendering for full-time Christian service now than thirty years ago. Enrollment in our Southern Baptist Seminaries is declining. These are sad trends.

 

There is only one answer: we need revival! We need for God to restore us to Himself and renew us as in former times. There is only one way it will come: we must ask God to do it. Please join me in praying for revival.