Uncertain Times Call For A Certain Hope

These are uncertain times. I have been thinking for several weeks about what is happening in our country right now. Politics are getting meaner and more sleazy by the year. Our government has become something strange, something distasteful to us. More intrusive. More demanding. Nothing like we have known in the past.

The world stage is fragile. Civil unrest is rampant in parts of the world with dictators raping and killing their people. Financial markets seem ready to implode. Most of us feel totally at a loss to do anything about it. It seems that a fog has moved in and clouded our sense of well-being and security. There seems to be a spirit of confusion and instability. We (at least I) feel like something foreboding is on the horizon. You'd think that people, especially Christians, would turn to the help of God, as in times past. But I think the post-Christian culture we live in veils this help.

Even the church seems to have lost it's purpose and it's way in the midst of a "politically correct" culture. There is no shortage of programs. Many of them are good. There is good-faith effort to want to help Christians in their growth and walk with God. But the "man in the pew" (if he/she is even present) seems largely unaffected. He or she can sort of "take it or leave it." Concern for a lost and shaken world is thin and the most powerful tool available to us, prayer, is the last thing on anyone's mind...not sure it really works anyway. We do that in which we truly believe.

THEN THE SENSELESS SHOOTINGS IN AURORA, COLORADO BREAKS POWERFULLY IN ON THIS LETHARGIC LANDSCAPE...and we ask WHY?

I mentioned these things to a pastor recently. He told me to read 2 Chronicles 15. I did. There was no voice, no message of hope in the land of Israel. Israel was without a "teaching priest" and the result was was "turmoil" and confusion. Sounds a lot like our nation, our world today.

King Asa did the only thing that could be done. He called for a sacred assembly of the people for prayer. That is what we need today. God has to be broken-hearted over the state of a once God-honoring nation. The church needs revival and the nation, the world, needs an awakening of overwhelming proportions. UNCERTAIN TIMES CALL FOR A CERTAIN HOPE.

There is HOPE in God. He has the answer to the dilemmas of our day. The Church must get on it's knees before God and plead for revival. That starts with me. I need to be on my knees in repentance.

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If Jesus Is Coming Soon, Why Pray For Revival and For Spiritual Awakening?

When considering the subject of revival and spiritual awakening in the twenty-first century, this question, as the title suggests, is often asked. I have certainly given thought to it myself. Why would we pray when we know that according to Scripture things in the world will get worse and worse just before Jesus returns to this earth? What is the motivation or inspiration for any such revival prayer activity?

In his book, Revival, Richard Owens Roberts answers this question under the heading of “General Hindrances To Revival.” He lists three hindrances. I commend a reading of this book to you. I will quote here only a portion of the first of the three hindrances, “The hindrance of erroneous interpretation” (the other hindrances being Prayerlessness and Faithlessness):

Have you heard someone say, ‘These are the last days. No revival of religion can ever again be hoped for. We can only expect things to grow worse and worse’? Obviously, such a viewpoint can have a devastating effect on revival interest…

We must not let our observations on the condition of society and the degeneration of the hearts of men block our earnest seeking of God’s face. God is as able to send revival now or at any time during the history of His Church. While on the surface, things do seem to be getting worse and worse, a balanced perspective on history clearly suggests that the Bible is absolutely right in declaring men of all times and in all places are ‘deceitful and desperately wicked.’ There have been times in the past when it looked as if the world could not survive another generation, and yet it did. This may well be the last generation, but then again, our great-great-grandchildren may be the ones to see Christ’s coming in the air. Since the possibility exists that this may not be the last generation, we should, with ever-increasing fervency, seek a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God in revival blessing for the sake of both our own and future generations, and for the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Roberts goes on:

To hinder revival by arbitrarily announcing that it cannot come because of the late hour of history in which we live is to abandon our role as faithful servants of Jesus Christ and to pose as God. If God chooses to revive us again, who has sufficient authority to say He cannot? Time after time, in the dark seasons of the past, God has stepped into the stream of history and sent revival. Why shouldn’t we expect Him to do it again?

Compiler’s Summary

It is clear to me that it is a matter of even greater urgency that we fervently

pray for revival and spiritual awakening in these “last days.”

We could be praying for the last great revival,

the last great awakening the world may ever know

Could it be that hundreds of thousands of people might be swept

into the Kingdom of God in one final great move of God and then

comes the end of history, as we know it, followed by the return of Christ?

If we believe prayer works, why wouldn’t we watch and pray?

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