There are a number of things going on in our world which speaks to the darkness of the times. We have a manmade virus raging throughout our world. There is so much confusion over what will or won’t protect us from getting it. The statistics have been used to convince us of how deadly or innocuous the virus in depending on which news source you tap into. We have shut down the economy, hospitals, and senior care center visitations, and have isolated anyone even suspected of having been near anyone who might have been in contact with someone who might have had the virus. (I am not even sure I followed that sentence as I typed it, but that is just how confusing this situation has become.) Our schools are battling to remain open and continue to teach our kids. Our teachers are trying to teach virtually and in person and their populations in each of those programs changes constantly.
We have racial division, which is nothing new, but in an age of outrage and offense, we have those who wish to foment hate and discontent who are stirring people up against one another. We have white on black, black on white, black on black, white on white, Native American on white, white on Native American, Hispanic on black, black on Hispanic, Anglo on Hispanic, Hispanic on Anglo, ad infinitum, division and very few people speaking to reconciliation or healing. We are looting, burning, threatening, shooting, shouting, hating and abusing each other to the point where we are fractured almost beyond healing.
We have fires burning, houses flooding, earthquakes rumbling, financial stress, political infighting, communities defunding police, foreign intrigue, etc., the list just seems to keep going and going. With all of this going on, one would normally agree that we need revival, but this is not what I am talking about. Lost people are going to live like lost people. Those who don’t know Jesus are going to live like they do not know Jesus. It was true of us before we came to faith in Christ, and it is true of every person who has ever become a believer.
With all this darkness, surely, we need revival! Actually, this is not the greatest reason I think we need revival. You might not agree with me, but I think the greatest indication we need a revival is found in Zephaniah’s warnings to Judah that fueled Josiah’s reforms:
““It will come about at that time that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And I will punish the men who are stagnant in spirit, who say in their hearts, ‘The Lord will not do good or evil!’” (Zephaniah 1:12, NASB95)
Notice, the issue was not the sin of the people, although that was also true. The issue was that those who claimed to follow God had become “stagnant of spirit.” What does that mean? They had gotten comfortable with the things of God so that it no longer stirred their hearts. No, I don’t mean they didn’t shed a tear at a moving sermon or get a warm feeling in their heart when the Psalms were read. They might have done that, but they had gotten to the point where they really did not expect God to do anything for them or against them. Their world was reduced to just here and now. Like Ecclesiastes 9, they had fallen into an existential, pessimistic, apathetic view of life and God. That is the attitude that needs revival. That is the condition of the American church. Yes, we need to work for reconciliation and repair of the darkness in our world, but we need God to change our hearts so that even want it to change. We need God to work on us to convince us God will work on us. We have become stagnant of spirit and God wants that to change. I pray it will begin with me, us, and all throughout this land. We won’t vote it in, shout it down, or demand it. We will surrender, submit to God, and see Him work.