DIY REVIVAL

" . . . Gypsy's (Gypsy Smith: old time evangelist) secret was revealed to a delegation of revival seekers, who asked him how God could use them just as He was using Gypsy. Without hestitation, Gypsy said, "Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that circle."
Mark Batterson
The Circle Maker p.217

I admit, I started "The Circle Maker" with undisguised reservation. I expected another hokey, non-Biblical gimmick for prayer. But, I have to say, I learned much about seeking God's will and persevering.

I began (Discipline has to begin, and sometimes grows slowly.) to pray very specifically for people and situations--using God's Word as my guide. This morning, I added yet another Scripture prayer for myself. I felt like this prayer experiment was failing. My intention was to pray for "others."

Then I remembered the above story. Perhaps I was on the right track after all. The Scripture I added to my prayer journal, for myself, was John 15: 4-5. I'm asking God to help me abide in Him, that I might bear fruit. I pray Psalm 1: 1-3 for my daughter and myself--again for help in meditating on God's Word that we might bear fruit.

For a week or so, I've been praying from Jeremiah 10:24: Correct me, but with justice; not in your anger . . . and from Proverbs 3: 11-12 asking God to help me to not despise His chastening or detest His correction, because those are proof of His love.

So, it seems that God "has" been highlighting verses and directing my prayers. It seems, as Gypsy Smith has suggested, that God wants revival to begin in me. My prayer journal isn't too far off. It's becoming a Do It Yourself Revival.

God, may it be so, and yet know that I cannot really do it myself because I am . . .

Utterly Dependent on You, Who is Utterly Dependable,
Lonnie