Revive Us Again

“We praise Thee, O God! For the Son of Thy love,
For Jesus Who died, And is now gone above.

Chorus
Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen.
Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again.

We praise Thee, O God! For Thy Spirit of light,
Who hath shown us our Savior, And scattered our night.

All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
Who hath borne all our sins, And hath cleansed every stain.

All glory and praise to the God of all grace,
Who hast brought us, and sought us, and guided our ways.

Revive us again; Fill each heart with Thy love;
May each soul be rekindled with fire from above.”

As we start the New Year, there are many things that we will resolve to do.  Maybe it is to exercise more and lose weight.  Maybe it is to watch less TV, take up a new hobby, drive more slowly, etc.  Our pastor and youth pastor are encouraging our Church to read the entire Bible through over the next 3 years.  In addition to gaining a deeper understanding of the Word through this process, I am also praying that the members of our church experience a personal revival.   2 Chronicles 7:14 says “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  I think we can all agree our country needs a “healing” and a revival.  This hymn reminds us that the Lord can and will “Revive us again.”  Revival may mean different things to different people.  It may mean we see many lost souls come to know the Lord.  It may mean we draw closer to Him with a renewed “fire” to know Him more, and tell others more about Him.  It may mean the church as a whole becomes that “light” in their community that point souls to Jesus.  All of those would represent positive revival from my perspective.

There are a couple of phrases in this hymn that I like:

• “Hath borne all our sins” – I like the contrast that this word brings.  We normally think of the word “born” as “being birthed.”  As we know, Christ was the only one not “born” in sin.  However, this particular “borne” has several good definitions that fit well with what Christ did for us.  “Borne” can mean “to suffer, to endure, to carry, or to accept the responsibility for.”  What a powerful statement.  We commit the sin.  He carried sin’s burden.   We try to deny responsibility for things we do.  He accepted the punishment and responsibility for what we did.

• “Cleansed every stain” – Do you have the mindset that there are sins that are too big for God to forgive?  Many people have that type of view of forgiveness.  However, God’s cleansing and forgiveness covers “every stain.”  There is not a sin “too dark” that Jesus’ blood cannot cover. 

• “Sought us” – There are many references in Psalms where the writer says “I sought the Lord.”  David wrote in Psalms 34:4 “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”  I am grateful that God can be sought and can be found.  However, the phrase “sought us” in this hymn reminds us that God is seeking us too.  Jesus reminded us of this with the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the Prodigal son.   Another old hymn says “He sought me and He bought me with His redeeming blood.”  Aren’t you grateful for that?  

Finally, there is a phrase in the last verse of this hymn that reminded me of camping – “slowly rekindled with fire from above.”  For those of you that have camped-out in the fall or winter, it is fairly common that one’s campfire slowly dies out during the night.  However, there are typically some “hot” coals the next morning when you wake up that are hidden under the ash.  If you have some fire skills, you can take those few hot coals and restart the fire.  There are a few things needed to restart that fire though:  some patience, some “know-how,” more wood or fuel for the fire, and air.  What a picture of what can happen with the spiritual fire within us.  From the outside, it may look like our “fire” has gone out, but buried under the “ash” are “hot coals” that are waiting to be revived.  To revive that spiritual fire, we also need patience – a waiting on the Lord and His timing.  We need the “know-how” which comes from reading and learning from the Word.  We need “fuel” to sustain the fire which to me represents seeing fruit from our efforts that encourages us to do more.  And finally, we need “air” – we need the Holy Spirit to convict us, encourage us, and “breathe” in our lives so that we might be “revived again.”