| Our verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2/) is Habakkuk 3:2 |
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| Habakkuk 3:2 says, “O LORD, I have heard your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.” |
| REVIVE US AGAIN OH LORD! As the Prophet Habakkuk hears from God the judgment that will be coming upon Judah he is greatly troubled. He is AFRAID!! Having heard the report He now PRAYS, praying a prayer for REVIVAL. Knowing the wrath that is to come from Almighty God he prays for mercy. As a new student at the Criswell Bible College in 1982 I had a personal evangelism class with the president of the school, Dr. Paige Patterson. He gave us 7 verses a week to memorize and one of the earliest verses was Habakkuk 3:2. I recall his admonition to be asking God for revival. As a student, I also started reading sermons and one of the most impactful sermons came from Dr. Jerry Vines. His message was a plea for revival and his text was Psalm 85:6. Psalm 85:6 says, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” Dr. Vines pressed the point that we ask God for revival. As a student at Liberty Baptist College (later Liberty University), I heard numerous appeals for us to pray for revival to come to America. Many chapel speakers used 2 Chronicles 7:14 for the text of their message to plead for us to seek revival. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” I am a believer in seeking God to revive His work! I am a believer in asking God to revive His people. I am a believer in asking God to revive His church. I am a believer in asking God to revive ME! Over the last few weeks, we have read of the “fires of revival” at Asbury University in Ky. I, for one, find joy in hearing of God working and of God’s people responding. May their lives never be the same!! Because of what has been happening at Asbury University I have noticed quite a few people weighing in on the topic of what is revival. As I started out 40 years ago praying for revival, I thought it would be important to know what it might look like if God were to answer my prayers and the prayers of thousands of others. I was helped in finding answers by Dr. Jerry Falwell as he preached one Sunday morning The Ten Distinguishing Marks of Revival. I don’t have space here and you probably don’t have time to read all ten points but I will tell you that I have never forgotten the first point. He said real revival happens when people PUT AWAY their foreign gods. We were instructed to then look at three passages starting with Genesis 35:2. Genesis 35:2 says, “And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments. We then went to Joshua 24:14 where Joshua said, “Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! Then we turned to 1 Samuel 7:3-4. 1 Samuel 7:3 says, “Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.” If revival is happening and if it is to happen there will be REPENTANCE of worshiping false gods. The repentance will be followed up with a PUTTING AWAY – a renouncement – a removal of those false gods. Then you will see once again the WORSHIP of the one and only TRUE GOD. What is in your life that has become an idol? Because of those idols, your love for God has diminished as your love for the idol has increased. PUT AWAY those false idols and SERVE HIM only! I plead with you to get the TRASH OUT! Verse to DATE the Word on March 2 (3/2/) is Habakkuk 3:2. It says, “O LORD, I have heard your speech and was afraid; O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.” Keep seeking revival and (just a thought) ask God to start it first in you, Continue Strong, And remember to DATE THE WORD |