Let a Revival Begin with Me

We live in a day of chaos in society and spiritual declension in the church. Pastors spend more time on their backsides watching Netflix than on their knees in prayer. Few sermons have life or power.

They're either one of two extremes of either entertainment and funny stories or dry teaching and a dull lecture. There is an atmosphere of dryness in the church that is deadening. How are sinners going to be saved in an atmosphere of dry eyes and prayerlessness? We have become so desensitized to sin that it no longer shocks us.

We have forgotten how to blush. We have lost our sense of shame and our sight of indecency. We exist in a state of apathy and indifference.

We are apathetic towards the spread of the gospel and we are indifferent to the lost and perishing all around us. The church is in the grip of self-complacency and self-preservation. Few want to go out on a limb for God these days.

Where is the missionary enterprise spirit that captured the youth of America in the mid-19th century? Where are the pastors who fear God more than man? If they feared God, they would radically alter the way they preach to awaken the lost within their congregations. Their sermons would be full of the warnings about hell and a future judgment. They would warn men of their duty of repentance or face the consequences of eternal damnation.

They would preach hard against sin and thunder the strictness of God's unbending law. They would warn of the danger of dining your sins and the utter necessity of a work of grace upon the heart and regeneration. But instead, they tell funny stories to amuse and entertain, or the handout lectures and essays to be considered.

Where is the smoke and the fire, let alone a spark, when they preach? Why isn't the word of God running like a hammer that breaks up all false foundations of carnal security? Why aren't people disturbed over sin and crying out in agony? What must that do to be saved? Why keep doing the same thing if it's not working? Why add members to your church roll if they are not on heaven's roll book of life? Why can't we see through the fog? It's because we operate in an atmosphere of dryness and decay. We need revival, but we are too asleep to realize it. How can you call yourself a church if the carpet in your sanctuary isn't wet with the tears of broken-hearted saints crying out to God in anguish over the lost in your community? Dries and prayerlessness go together like peanut butter and jelly, a sticky sandwich that only satisfies for a little while.

Where is the man willing to go out on a limb for God, willing to gamble his life and reputation away for Christ and the sake of the gospel? Why have the embers gone out on the altar of our heart, and why has holiness gone out the window of the church? Where is the man who will put it all on the line for God and eternity? Where there's smoke, there is fire, and where there is dryness, there is decay. We are all victim to coldness and dryness and spiritual authority. Lately, a long illness has made my focus more on myself than on the spiritual needs of others.

I needed a personal revival. Like Job, I said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Give me a fire, O Lord.

Give me a fire for thee. Give me your fire, O Lord. Let it burn brightly in me.

Give me a fire, O Lord. The wood of my life I give to thee. Consume my ashes, O Lord, and let a revival begin with me.

Give me a fire, O Lord. Give me a glimpse of hell and eternity. Make me a fire, O Lord, so my life may be burned out for thee.

Give me a fire, O Lord. Increase my desire for thee. Make me a flame, O Lord, that draws others to you through me.