Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the middle of the years… The symptoms and evidences of spiritual life in possession and active operation, on the part of the Church collectively and of the individual believer, are many, and are such as may be easily recognised. I. A DEEP SENSE OF THE NEED OF REVIVAL. It is in this as in regard to personal spiritual concerns. There must be felt need before there can be fervent prayer. Let us now consider more particularly what is really needed at the present time, or in what respects revival may be said to be needed. 1. We require a revival of personal religion. The influence and power of personal religion and of well-founded, deeply rooted convictions of the efficacy and power of the Word of God, and of the Gospel of His Son in the hand of the Holy Spirit, cannot be overestimated. 2. We require a revival of family religion. Let there but be a revival of personal holiness vouchsafed throughout the land, and religion in a more open and public form would be sure to follow. 3. We require a revival of national religion. II. AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GOD AS THE AUTHOR OF THIS MUCH NEEDED REVIVAL. The prophet calls it His work. Yes, the revival of the work of grace in the individual soul, of spiritual vitality in the Church, and of real and lively regard for the glory of God and the supreme authority of His law, in the supreme and subordinate legislative assemblies of the nation, is the work of God. Hence God alone can revive it. III. THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER TO PRODUCE THE REVIVAL OF GOD'S WORK. As well as Zerubbabel, the prophet Habakkuk knew that this great work was not to be accomplished by might or by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord; but clearly as he understood this, no less strongly did he feel his obligation to pray for it. (A. Stirling.) Parallel Verses KJV: O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. |
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