This year we’ve been praying for revival. Yet a revival always starts with … ME; a ‘holy discontent’ with (i) my OWN spiritual life, THEN (ii) the church’s spiritual life, and (iii) society’s spiritual life. So to pray for revival MUST start with asking God to grant ME a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him.
Yet what does ‘a deeper and more intimate relationship’ with the Lord look like? It means enjoying God as our ultimate treasure. This occurs first and foremost through enjoying time with him in (i) Bible reading, (ii) meditation, and (iii) prayer. Yet this type of enjoyment will NOT come through sheer will. Forcing ourselves to engage in private devotions may work for a week or 2. Yet a sense of duty usually fades. The more reliable way to ensure regular time with the Lord is to ask God to transform our hearts to MAKE us enjoy it, and therefore look forward to it each day.
I have prayed a similar prayer 3 times in my life; (i) that God would make me take his word seriously (at age 20), (ii) that God would make me enjoy private devotions (at age 40), and (iii) that God would make me want to meditate on his word day and night (at age 44). The first 2 prayers took less than a week to be answered, while the third took a few months. The reality is, there are few prayers God would more like to grant, than his children developing a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him?
Surely now is the time to give this a go; when we have more time on our hands in this Coronavirus lockdown. So before you open your Bible this week, pray this prayer: ‘Lord, please transform my heart, by your Spirit, to enjoy my private devotions so much, that I look forward to them every day’. Then wait and see how long it takes God to revive our heart.
