What is your first instinct when you see the turmoil happening in our world? When you witness friends tearing each other apart on social media. When you hear news stories telling us that another pandemic is not a question of if but when. When you read the statistics that show an epidemic of loneliness and depression impacting young people.
What's your first thought when you hear of anemic churches struggling to survive? When you see Bible-believing denominations fracturing and church leaders disgraced. When churches teach moralism more than the gospel.
What is your knee-jerk reaction when societal structures are teetering? When global economies struggle? When wars rage? When standing for life and proclaiming the truth is labeled as fascist. When confusion overtakes common sense. When evil seems to be advancing unabated.
Is your first instinct to pray? Is your first thought to go to the throne of grace? Is your knee-jerk reaction to fall on your knees?
O friends, too often, I find myself stepping into the headwinds of culture and tackling life challenges without first praying.
I think we all desire to see a great move of God in our nation and our world.
The revival historian, J. Edwin Orr, has famously said, “No great spiritual awakening has begun anywhere in the world apart from united prayer — Christians persistently praying for revival.”
Are you familiar with the 1949 revival that swept the Scottish islands known as the Hebrides? Most church historians consider it the last genuine awakening in the western world.
It began when two octogenarian women, Peggy and Christine Smith, were greatly burdened by their church and community's dire state. They gathered each evening to pray, sometimes interceding into the wee hours of the morning.
Eventually, they were joined by some local ministers and a visiting Scottish preacher.
Within weeks thirty were gathered to pray. Then fifty. And then hundreds.
Buses began to come from the four corners of the island, crowding the church. The conviction of the Holy Spirit began to sweep over the island. The crowds read scripture, sang, and continued to pray. Across town, people, we cut to the heart, and it was not uncommon to see people weeping and repenting over their sins.
Revival had come and shook the little island of Hebrides. The revival lasted for two years. It is said that over 90 percent of the island came to faith in Christ.
What precedes revival? Prayer.
For some time, I've felt a burden to deepen my prayer life, but also to encourage our churches to work together to see a prayer movement in our communities. But even a movement of prayer is Spirit-generated, so our first prayer is to simply as the Holy Spirit to do something we can't do.
One little step toward fostering prayer in our Network is the Pastors Lifting Up Pastors document we created last year. We've updated the pdf file, and you can download it here. I strongly encourage you to pray for 2 to 3 other pastors in our Network daily. I would even encourage you to lead your congregation to pray for other churches in our Network each Sunday.
Here's a picture of a board in the back of a little church in Auburn, Georgia that I came across years ago. The name on the board is the church I was pastoring at the time. I had no idea that another church (of another denomination) was praying for us. I was convicted that our church wasn't doing the same!
Let me leave you with this passage of Scripture that Peggy and Christine prayed the night that God used them to start an awakening in the Hebrides:
For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring,
and my blessing on your descendants.
- (Isaiah 44:3)