Here’s a video version of this post
Greetings, Grace Church! Easter has come and gone, and it’s Monday, but not like any other Monday in recent memory. We’re still under lockdown orders, and there is some question now of how long this situation will last. Public debate is increasing.
In the meantime, we find ourselves fighting internal battles. Perhaps for you that battle is the painful vacuum of loneliness. Or perhaps it’s anxiety – you fear for the loss of your job or income. But alongside these, you find other non-desirable things inside you, that get squeezed out under the pressure of quarantine: perhaps it’s impatience, or lust, or greed, or gluttony. You want God to alleviate any and all of the above.
But we also long for God to move in ways that only He can, to give wisdom to leaders, and to lead, provide and protect us. Furthermore, we want God to move in our country, to use this time to blow a fresh wind of His Spirit upon our world – for many people to come to a saving knowledge of Him.
In short, we want revival. I define revival this way (because it’s not found in the Bible): God doing the work that He is always up to, but among many people in the same place or area. And that work is bringing those who don’t know Him to repentant, joyous faith, and bringing His people to a deeper experience of the same thing.
So we want revival. And therefore, we need to pray for God to bring revival.
Therefore I am calling everyone associated with Grace Church to pray once a day, over the next week, for revival. I have asked each of the elders to provide some direction for each day’s praying, and you’ll receive that in your inbox each morning, and you can also find them here on the website.
A note about the larger issue of prayer, during this quarantine. We are focusing on prayer, because we find Paul’s command to married couples in 1 Cor. 7:5 instructive for the church:
“Do no deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer . . .”
Of course the immediate application here again is for married couples, and not about fellowship but about marital sex. However, the principle still stands: when we are apart, by mutual agreement, let’s use the time to be focused on prayer. That’s what we’re doing with this quarantine – we don’t want to waste it.
So please join us in prayer this week.
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