I take many trips to the Maritimes of Canada. I had the exciting opportunity to sail out into the Bay of St. Lawrence on the north side of Prince Edward Island to fish.
Our family brought fishing poles for the trip. The captain of the boat let down the jigging line for mackerel. This consisted of long lengths of fishing wire with hooks attached in intervals. They threw two of these lines overboard, catching lots of fish as we watched.
When we cast our lines in from our rods, we had up to 5 lines in the water from one said of the boat. At one point, the inevitable happened: entangled fishing lines!
Oh the frustrating task of disentangling the lines from each other in order to work with them individually. But it was necessary work that had to be done before any other work could be accomplished.
For Christians reading this book in Canada, your mental lines will be untangled for the most part. For brethren in Mexico, your mind will not be confused. For brethren in England, my understanding is that the country is now so far removed from any concept of the God of the Bible that there is very little chance of confusing a love for England with being a Christian.
However, for my brethren from my native country of the United States, any talk about revival is entangled with nationalism because our nation’s history is so replete with workings of God. Our culture was heavily influenced by these workings of God in revival throughout our existence. I am certainly not disparaging the history of any other country. I have close friends in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and more.
But in the United States, there are many who believe that they live in a “Christian” nation, and that makes them Christians as well. Even true believers have trouble imagining that II Chronicles 7:14 can apply to a country other than the USA. This is a problem.
Please do not misunderstand. I love my country. I am named after a family member who gave his life serving. I have more family who have served or are currently serving in the armed forces. I love them and I am incredibly grateful for my country. And I know that God has used the United States in mighty ways in the past.
But the United States is no longer a Christian nation, and the sooner American Christians realize this, the better.
And I feel that I cannot help my American brethren until I first disentangle the mental lines that tie love of country and love of God together. They are both good but separate things, and one certainly takes precedence over the other.
Most American Christians don’t really want revival because they don’t know what revival is.
Uptick in Revival Talk: What Does It Mean?
As I travel, I am finding increasing interest in the subject of revival. More people are talking about revival. More people are praying for revival. More churches are seeing the need for revival. When I ask congregations what they think is the greatest need today, invariably they will agree on the word “revival.”
In the United States, my home country, people feel that this must be a sign that revival is on the horizon, that God will be pleased, and the great days of our nation will be revisited. After all, II Chronicles 7:14 promises that if we pray, God will answer and HEAL OUR LAND. Amen! That’s what we need, brother! We need God to heal our land!
The thought process goes something like this:
“After all, look at our nation. We are deluged with perversion on television. Abortion has been the scourge of our country for decades. The reading scores in the public schools have fallen since we removed God. Our school kids cannot pray publicly, marriage is under attack, people swear, and not nearly as many people go to church as in the past. What a state we are in! Our country needs revival!”
If you are ready to give a good hearty “AMEN!” to those two paragraphs, I don’t blame you. Our country is in far worse shape morally than she has ever been. Sin has taken its course in our society as it always does.
But revival has much less to do with the state of the country than you may think. In fact, if the word “revival” brings thoughts such as those paragraphs to your mind first and foremost, you have been caught in a trap; a patriotic, country-first trap but a trap nonetheless.
Our country needs revival, but the revival our country needs is not the revival most church folk think it is. We need to untwist the lines in our mind to be able to effectively understand what revival is and what revival isn’t. If we don’t, we will miss out on what God could have in store.