1 Peter 5:6 & 7 (ESV) Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

James 4:6–9 (ESV) But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

We understand that God is the one who grants us the spirit of humility in seeing ourselves as we are before Him. Jesus affirmed this in the Sermon On the Mount.

Matthew 5:3–6 (ESV) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Even so, God holds us responsible to live our lives in humility before Him, hence the admonitions of Peter and James to humble ourselves by living a life of reliance upon Him for everything in life as shown in prayer, by expressions of grief over the sin in our lives, including the sinful tendencies, and by our acts of submission to God and His Word.

It’s interesting to note that these three expressions of our self abasement (prayer, grief over sin, and acts of voluntary submission to Jesus as the sovereign Lord of our lives) are Biblical evidences that God is preparing us for revival and our seriousness in desiring revival.
Consider the prayer of Daniel.

Daniel 9:1–6 (ESV) In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. 6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

In this first part of Daniel’s prayer he shows his submission to the Lord by holding fast to the words spoken by Jeremiah the prophet. He also shows his humility before God by turning to God in prayer, rather than complain about the fact that the seventy years of captivity were nearly over and he didn’t see a sign of any relief. Daniel begins his prayer by reiterating the failure of himself and his people which brought the judgment of God.

As I encourage you to review the entire prayer in Daniel 9, I would also encourage you to treat it as a lesson of praying for revival. In applying it to us today, I believe we could and should go back to how in the 1950s prayer became less and less important in the church in America. We had been through some crucial times of the Great Depression and World Wars I and II when people were calling upon the Lord and living in daily dependency upon Him. In the 1950s we began to prosper in America and so we treated God like we didn’t need him resulting in great acceptance of sinful practices, lifestyles, and attitudes which has led us today to the place where we know we deserve the judgment of God for the way we have conformed to the world and left God out of our lives and even out of the church. If ever there was a time we could match up to the charges of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation chapters two and three, it’s today.

Does that concern you?

May we take this seriously and understand that instead of complaining, instead of just going with the flow, it’s time to awake out of our slumber and realize how much we need the power of the Holy Spirit to humble ourselves before God.

Will you join me in following the call of the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of God to humble ourselves in preparing for a great revival? He must bring it but He holds us responsible to prepare for it. Just as God brought the power to the church on the day of Pentecost but they had followed Jesus’ instruction to wait for that power. As they met in prayer – reliance upon God, they humbled themselves in submission to the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ. The result: God brought the power.

Godspeed,
Pastor Bob
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