Two Elements of True Revival

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. ~Psalms 24:1

I’ve recently been studying and learning about the great Hebrides revival in Scotland which took place from 1949-1952.

What an amazing outpouring of God’s love and grace. Many hundreds, if not thousands of people gave their lives to Christ during that time. It’s said that the power of God was so mighty there that as people prayed and cried out to him, houses shook and dishes rattled. As people in neighboring towns looked at the place where the people were gathered in prayer it appeared as though it was on fire. There were many recorded miracles and healings.

Mostly, though, people gave their lives to God, sometimes by the hundreds at a time. The presence of God was powerful there.

As with most revivals, there were 2 main elements with this outpouring: prayer and repentance.

The people were crying out to God, and they were overwhelmed by their sin.

As they gathered for prayer, it was common to pray for many hours and even days at a time. They were overcome with the gravity of their sin and they begged God for forgiveness.

Learning about this powerful outpouring has led me to look at my own life.

This passage from Psalms 24 echoed in many of the prayers that the people prayed as they cried out to God.

Are we people with clean hands and a pure heart? Am I such a person? Too often, I think not.

We’ve allowed the world to control what we do and how we think.

We fit God into our lives instead of revolving our lives around God and the precepts of his word.

 

Do you want to ascend to the mountain of the Lord?
Do you want your prayers to touch the heart of God?

I know I do. That’s the cry of my heart.

 

Maybe the answer is to look within our hearts and lives.

Maybe it’s to cry out to God in prayer, confessing our sin to him.

We can never be perfect. Only Jesus can stake that claim. But we should never allow sin to control our lives. Living a sinful, unrighteous life should never become our new normal. Choosing after sin will always hinder our prayers from fully reaching the heart of God.

What if we cried out to God in honest heart-felt confession?

What if we repented from our sin?

What if we prayed?