LORD, HELP THE PASTOR; WE NEED REVIVAL

“Dear Lord, PLEASE, either change these people or change the situation, I can’t take it anymore.”  Have you ever prayed this prayer over someone in your life that is a constant thorn in your side and has just gotten on your “last nerve?” It maybe your neighbor, a co-worker, husband or a long-time friend that you can see needs a complete overhaul. Perhaps your pastor is your prayer focus; he could use a little more fire in his sermons, the worship leader would benefit from a few hours seeking God for the right songs and the pastor’s wife just hasn’t been as warm and caring as she should. “Actually, Lord, our church needs a major REVIVAL, please help the Pastor.” If this is your perception, the most dangerous thing you can do right now is PRAY.


When it comes to INTERCESSION, the only prayer God hears is the prayer that involves a blessing on the other person. God is really not open to “GET EM” prayers. He is much more concerned with your heart and your attitude, right now, than He is with your neighbor’s. OK, before you get all self-righteous about God’s concern for your neighbor, consider that your neighbor, pastor, worship leader or pastor’s wife may be praying the same prayer in regards to you. It is very dangerous to pray with this mindset because this is when God always begin an operation of PAINFUL PROBING.

Every time I begin to pray about a problem I see in someone else’s life, God gives me an opportunity to change my own life. There have been times, I’m not quite ready to change and so I cut my prayer time short and continue to fuss and fume. We serve a relentless God, when it comes to creating a clean heart in us. The next time I kneel to pray, God is patiently waiting to dig at the roots of the real problem; my perception and attitude. When I finally surrender and allow Him to pull a few weeds and brush away a few dust bunnies I missed, my focus and prayer changes. Suddenly, I realize my neighbor is doing the best she can with her situation, the Pastor becomes so anointed, preaching messages that produce unexpected insight and the worship leader has chosen just the right songs to lead us to the Throne of Grace. The most amazing thing is that I find myself in a church that is “smack dab” in the middle of revival.

So if you are still convinced God really needs to change the people in your life and you are happy with yourself, just the way you are, DON'T pray for revival. But if you desire to be everything God desires you to become, than you can pray Psalms 51:1-2, 10, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin…. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” I guarantee, if you sincerely pray this prayer and allow God to finish what He started IN YOU, the Pastor will receive help and the church will experience revival.