Megan Evans, Women’s Ministry Director, LHBC
Psalm 85:6-7, 10-11 (ESV)
6Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
10Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Revive us once again O Lord! Restore our nation that we may worship You! When is the last time you prayed for a revival of worship for your community, nation, or the world? Today? Last month? Last year? Never? Whatever the answer, it’s not too late to start!
Psalm 85 is a fervent prayer for revival and reminds us of the importance of intercession in our prayer time. The Psalmist’s heart is heavy as he cries out for restoration for his people. As believers we have the privilege and responsibility to stand in the gap and pray for the lost. With so much hurting and darkness in our world, it’s easy to grow complacent. The enemy doesn’t want us to pray for revival, so we need to stay vigilant. If we adopt the attitude that the world is too far gone to change, sooner or later revival will wiggle its way out of our prayer time.
What if instead of passing judgement or growing angry at the face of evil, we prayed for those faces? What if we cried out for these hardened hearts to soften and stir? What if we asked God to break the strongholds of idolatry and pray for our adulterous nation to turn back to the One True God? It’s not too late to start praying these big prayers!
In Psalm 85 the psalmist fervently cries out for his nation that has fallen away from God. He recalls the promise of God’s steadfast love for his people, a covenant love. He recalls the forgiveness and restoration God brought the Israelites in generations before and then cries out, Lord do it once again! (Psalm 85:1-3).
Revive us! What tender reconciliation results from a heart that turns to God! Through Christ’s blood poured out for us on the cross, we are reconciled and love and truth come together in perfect peace. Steadfast love and righteousness join together and as the psalmist then tenderly illustrates, righteousness and peace meet in a kiss (Psalm 85:10).
We don’t deserve this kiss any more than the prodigal son deserved his Father’s kiss upon his impoverished and squandered return. Yet praise God our story doesn’t have to end in rags! Will you pray today for the lost and unbelieving souls? Will you pray for our world to know the sweetness of mercy and run to outstretched arms of the Heavenly Father?
We have all fallen short of the glory of God and deserve full penalty of His Law (Romans 3:23, 6:23). Not one of us is righteous (Romans 3:10), yet in our filth, God demonstrated His great love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Justice and righteousness of the Law are met through the mercy of the Gospel-there is no sweeter kiss!
If you’ve never prayed for revival, make today the first! Pray for a revival of hearts around the world and in our nation to turn to the Lord, and may our land respond! Choose today to cry out in prayer, “revive us once again O Lord!”
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Dear Lord, revive my heart each day. Teach me to come to you daily with a repentant heart, ready for you to mold and shape me to be more like Jesus. Revive my prayer life to include prayer for the lost and the world. I pray for my nation today. May we turn our hearts to you! Remember Your people O God, revive us once again that we may rejoice in you! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”