Revival! (5)

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33.3

Ministers of Scotland: Lectures on Revival VI
The Rev. Alexander Cumming, Minister of Dunbarney Parish
“God is more willing to give us a mercy of great dimensions, whose consequences will be commensurate with eternity, than one whose effects will be limited to time. The exhaustless benignity of his nature has a wider scope and sweeter exercise when we solicit something large than when we restrict our expectations to what is small.”

Is it possible that our prayers are most of the time “too small”? Do we only ever pray about temporal matters and trivial concerns? Do we pray only for what is familiar, or only that which will remove or mitigate some tension or distress? Where have we learned to pray this way? Is it possible that, like children learning to speak, people who pray this way are only mimicking what they hear and see in those entrusted with their care and nurture? We cannot pray through, say, Psalm 72, or Psalm 85, and not see that God has scripted prayers for us, giving us the very words to “solicit something large” from Him. He encourages us to believe Him for great things and mysteries such as we have never known before. If we want our people to supplicate big things from God – like generation-spanning revival, renewal, and awakening – then we should lead the way with our own prayers, both in private and in public.

What about your prayers? Are they focused more on temporal or eternal matters? On small matters or big?

Pray for Revival
Join us online once a month to pray for revival. We meet for 30 minutes, once a month, pray a psalm and seek the Lord together for revival. We’re looking for men who will commit to seeking the Lord for revival together. If you’re interested, write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and I’ll give you a list of available times. Or we can discuss beginning a new group to pray for revival at a more suitable time.

To help you in preparing for revival, we have two brief books that won’t take you more than an hour to read. Preparing Your Church for Revival tells you what to expect as the Lord begins to move, and shows you how to get ready even now (click here). Restore Us! provides the rationale and means for praying together for revival. It includes 12 psalms to guide your times of praying together (click here).

All quotations in this series are taken from Ministers of Scotland,Lectures on Revival, Richard Owen Roberts, ed. (Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1980). Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.