O Lord, Revive Your Work

Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:2

Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth. Hosea 6:1-3

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Revival, renewal, rebirth, regeneration, resurrection. We experience such finality in death. We are sobered by the thought of death because it is an end to life. Death extinguishes the flicker of life that exists in a real being. Death is the end, there is nothing afterward. We recognize this and death causes us great amounts of grief.

But look to the power of Jesus Christ! He brings about REVIVAL and RESURRECTION! He takes death and brings it to life. No one, no where else does that happen. In Habakkuk 3:2, the prophet cries out for Yahweh to "revive Your work". There is a feeling that the people of God are dead and need reviving. But Habakkuk knows that God brings revival, not us. He cries out to relief from the heavens.

Hosea and the people had heard the charges of God against them and accepted their fate. But they knew that revival was coming. And look at how marvelous verse 2 is! After 2 days, on the third day comes our awakening, our revival! The life giving promises of God are accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is LIFE. He alone gives RESURRECTION.

Yet for some strange reason we seek life in everything apart from the source of resurrection and life. We look for it on the internet, in relationships, in books, on television, in art, in anger, in family, in education, and the list rambles on and on. We seek a joy in this life that can not be given apart from the warm touch of the life giving God that is Christ Jesus. We waste our time playing in the graveyard looking for signs of life, when in reality He has arisen and is calling us to Himself.

If only we would attach ourselves to His light, we would know the power of His resurrection. We bemoan the fact that our lives are dull, our churches are dead, and our spirits are low. But we fail to remember that apart from Jesus, there is only death. Let us cry out for revival in our souls. Let us pray that He might awaken our slumbering churches. Let us be attached to the giver of life, Jesus Christ. Because He is not only the giver of life, but He is life itself.

If we are sick, we need a doctor. If bones are broken, we need a surgeon. If we are dead, we need a savior. If your life or church is dry, dusty, and dead, it is not a new gimmick that you need, but the life of Jesus. "Awake, O Sleeper..."