Every year since 2011, I have prayerfully chosen a word for the year. The word friendships was my first chosen and that year I connected with my best friend Corbin and started our most beautiful journey getting to know one another. Since then, I've had the words rise, second, surrender and finally this year's word revival. Each word has been multi-faceted and has caused me to look internally at what sin patterns and worldly desires that need to be removed from this life.
Revival was mostly chosen because I felt that after some hard things I'd been going through over the past few years that I would need a year of rebirth and of renewing my faith. I actually debated between choosing revival and humility. You see, God laid on my heart a few years ago that my deepest sin pattern, the one bad root that can completely ruin all of the good seeds He's planting, is my pride. So, what better way to overcome it than to focus on being humble for a year. As honorable as this sounds though, my heart was not in it. I felt like humility was a lot of work and I didn't even know where to start with it, but I would dutifully choose that word. Then, on December 31st, I was listening to Pandora and what came on, "Revive Me" by Jeremy Camp. I literally sat crying listening to this beautiful song and feeling overwhelmed that the creator of the universe knew my soul needed a revival.
So, I didn't choose humility, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to work on humbling myself. Oh no, God had plans of humility for me. One aspect of my pride is having a god complex. I feel that I can do everything by myself, no prayer needed. I can raise my kids without consulting God, I can be a great wife without prayer and I can even be an amazing friend without prayer, right??? Actually, I can't. Sometimes my kids completely overwhelm me with how much they need me or how much trouble they get into without supervision. If I don't approach my husband or my friend's with grace, I become one judgmental woman. It's funny though cause if I do something all on my own and it works, I worship myself. I think how much better I am than that mother over there who obviously doesn't have it all together.
Can I just tell you how embarrassed I am by all this? But, without sharing my sin and repenting of it, I can never be free from it. The more I keep it locked in the closet of my soul, the more it grows. I am telling you, I am desperate for a revival. I want what Pastor Chad called a revival of holiness. I want to grow in my faith and start learning and growing in God's grace.
What about you? Do you feel a revival happening right now in your faith? In your church? In the body of Christ? Can I just tell you where it all starts? On your knees faithfully seeking God's face. Talk to him about that deep-seeded sin pattern that is destroying you. Openly tell a safe friend about this sin. Declare war on the enemy! He does not win my friends. I know that it can feel like it, but God's Word, our beacon of hope and truth, says that is a lie.
Now picture this, the body of Christ as a whole, on our knees seeking our Lord in ways we never have before daily, asking Him to make us individually holy, asking Him to remove sin from our life. Please join me in this calling. God has so much promise and hope for us. Let's cling to it!
Will you join me in prayer?
Lord,
I am so incredibly grateful for you and your saving grace. Where would I be without you? I pray for a revival in my soul. Please remove this pride from every ounce of my body. I pray that every person reading this would feel the power of your revival. Please convict their hearts Lord. Help them to recklessly seek you in all they do. I pray that you would send people into our lives to help us to see our sin and completely remove it. I pray for a revival of holiness in your church. Help us to face the mirror and our own sinful ways before ever looking at the world's sins. Cleanse us Papa! We need you so desperately.
In Jesus name,
Amen
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