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God's Words For US
by Cecelia Lester
Prayer groups devote quantity time asking God to bring revival to our lands. As we pray for renewal in our churches, we study how revival begins.
Confession and Forgiveness
The Asbury revival began when a group of students attending chapel began confessing their sins to God and to each other. In our 21Century world, we still have to confess our sins to God and to one another. I grew up hearing the adage, “Confession is good for the soul.”
Forgiveness carries with it three different connotations. When we forgive, we can exercise forbearance- complete forgiveness, we act like the event, /the sin did not happen. On the other hand, we can forgive and be wary of the person who hurt us-forgive but still remember. A person who chooses to forgive in this way exercises caution when dealing with the forgiven one. The third practice results in the breaking fellowship with the person who caused the hurt.
When we admit our sin to Him and express our sorrow, God forgives us; He deletes our offenses from His memory, no longer recognizing our transgressions.
“. . . if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” Matthew 6:14-15 (NIV)
Surrender
When we seek God’s forgiveness, we have to humble ourselves before Him. We have to realize the Lord’s control of our life and submit ourselves to Him.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to You. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts. . . “James 4:7-8
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:21 (NIV)
Praise
We learn to give Him praise for everything, even the trials we face. Our praise when we face trials is because God is with us and will lead us through. In her book, One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp writes of giving God praise in adverse times. She calls these “hard praises.” When I have had times that were distressful, I learned to look for the tiniest bit of light in the darkness of the circumstance and focus on what God would show me.
Revival Is Needed
We live in a fallen world. When we read a newspaper, we read of lives being tragically taken through man’s brutality to man. The television news shows the depths of violence to which our society has sunken.
Our only resource for revival is the LORD. Our nation has to return to Him. We will have no peace, personal or international, in our world unless we do.
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Cecelia Lester has been serious about her writing for over two decades..
She composes Christian essays and posts them to her blog quietspirit-followingmyking.blogspot.com/
She has served in a faith-based organization, Grace In Action by writing two newsletters and searching for possible grants.
In July 2017, she published her first book, 'Times of Trouble Bring Rays of Joy.'
She and her husband of 54 years live in central Indiana. They have one grown son.
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