"We need revival. That's the answer."
"Lord, I thank thee that I am not like other men..."
It's been a firm conviction of mine recently that revival starts with the Church simply being the Church -- walking in the fullness of Christ and all He taught us. Instead, we talk of revival as deliverance from the evils of the world. We prostrate ourselves and cry out to God with loud prayers for all to hear, in hopes that God will release a fresh outpouring of His Spirit on us.
Yet we do not love our neighbors as ourselves. We do not love our enemies and do good to those who seek to do us harm. When disaster strikes, or shootings, terrorism, and racial conflicts occur, we immediately suppress any lip service we once paid to the idea of the Kingdom of God "on Earth as it is in Heaven," and we relegate our cries for revival into an us-versus-them scapegoat mechanism that implicitly says, "If only THEY were saved, this wouldn't be an issue. Lord, save THEM!" We ask for revival because THEY need to be saved from their wicked ways, their immorality, and their violence. It is not because we need it in US to heal us of the sickness of our brother-hating sin. If only THEY were delivered, we wouldn't have to repay evil for evil! They're doing it to themselves!
They challenge our comfort -- so we blame their religion, culture, and/or sexual orientation. We accuse them of unfairly adhering to a victim mindset, and we tell them to get over atrocities of the past. All the while, we remain thankful that our mindset is better than theirs and pray that they would wake up, come to Jesus, or at the very least, shut up.
I am not against praying for the salvation of our enemies; we must. I am, however, against us getting an A-plus in missing the point.
We have been scapegoating for too long. Instead of resolving to see Christ in our enemies, we have opted to deflect and delegate blame. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.
In the words of Apostle John, "Whoever says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 Jn. 2:3). "Whoever says he is in the light, but hates his brother, is in darkness even until now. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes" (1 Jn. 2:9-11).
I am not a naturally loving person. I can be apathetic and pharisaical. But if I cannot see my fellow human regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and religion as my brother or sister, then I cannot see Christ altogether -- I have become blinded. My blindness leads me to play the victim and the blame game when Jesus never did so. If we ask for revival as an excuse for God to love our enemies so we don't have to, if we contend for awakening with hatred or apathy in our hearts, then we do not deserve it.
I say all of it because I am guilty of all of it. Yet I am encouraged, as you should be, for we know the goodness of God is meant to lead us to repentance (Rom 2:4). Repent with me.
