Revival

"I know your works, you labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent."
Revelation 2:2-5

In this letter to the church at Ephesus, Jesus is telling them that He knows their works, their labor, their patience while doing the work of the kingdom. He sees all of that. It is a good church it seems, from all outward appearances. They have all the programs, all the different classes for each age level, and have all the big resources and big productions. Everything seems to be great. And yet, as Jesus looks into the heart of the matter, what He sees does not please Him. Here is this church, with the parking lot full of cars every Sunday, and the offering till running over, with lots of big buildings, heralding the favor of God. And still, Jesus says that He has something against this church. They had forgotten something. With all this flurry of religious, yes, spiritual activity, they forgot the most important thing. They forgot to take care of their own personal walks with the Lord. They had left Him back there somewhere, waiting for them by the side of the road, if you will, while they rushed off to "be about the Lord's business." Jesus tells these people, that they have left their first love. They have left that passion and thirst for the Lord and His Word that they had when they first came to know Him. They needed a revival.

When I was younger, growing up in the church, when we had revival in our denomination, it meant that there was going to be a special speaker, and that there would be church service every night of the week. Everyone was supposed to go out and invite all their neighbors and other heathens that they knew, to come with them to revival, in the chance that they might get saved. Now, while there is something to be said for having special meetings as a break from the routine, true revival doesn't happen with special meetings and special speakers in special places. True revival begins when we look into our own hearts and see that we hunger and thirst for that hunger and thirst that we once had, for the Lord, and for His Word. If things have gotten stale in your life, if things are routine in your walk, if you are feeling parched and dry in your heart, chances are, you need a revival.

Jesus gives these people the way back to closeness with Him. He gives three things that we must do for personal revival. The first one is to remember. Remember. Remember from where you have fallen and do those things again. Remember the things you did at first, and do them again. Remember how you used to pray about everything? When you first got saved, there was no issue that was too small to take to the Lord in prayer. "Lord, what color of socks should I wear today?" Or, "Lord, should I have the meatloaf or the chicken for dinner?" But once we get farther down the road, we realize that we can handle some things on our own. We don't need to go to the Lord with everything. Pretty soon, we are handling more things on our own than we are taking to the Lord in prayer. And we can get away from Him that way. Remember how you used to read your Bible and study His Word all the time when you first got saved? We carried our Bibles with us everywhere just in case we had a moment or two where we could read some of God's Word. Today, some people don't even take a Bible to church, let alone read it at home or on their own. Those are the first works that we are to remember and to do again.

The second thing is to repent. Repent. To stop doing whatever it is that we are currently doing, and to start doing something else. It means to do a complete 180 degree turn. If we are walking away from God, even doing church work we can do that, and turn and walk toward Him. It doesn't matter what we are doing, if Jesus isn't in the center of it, then it is no good. So we must repent of leaving Him out of things. This leads to the third thing.

The third thing is return. Return to the things you did at first. The first works. Remember them, repent of what you were doing instead of them, and then return to doing them. Beloved, for revival to start in our land, it must first start in our own hearts. In my heart, as I look at me. In your heart as you look at you. Revival must start in our individual hearts, before it will ever catch on anywhere else. Shalom.