Tuesday Prayer: 36

This is my 36th 'Tuesday Prayer' post. I've recently started re-reading a powerful book on revival, by the legendary Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Titled 'Revival: can we make it happen?', and was struck by his powerful call for prayer, in the first chapter;

“we shall not be interested in revival until we realise the need... the futility of all our own efforts and endeavours and the utter absolute need of prayer, and seeking the power of God alone”

I found this deeply challenging. This exhortation comes at the end of a chapter where, in his characteristic (almost prophetic) style, Lloyd Jones has challenged the church regarding methods and means. This, then, is where prayer comes in. Gospel-motivated Christian people long to see genuine revival - to see the church renewed and reformed, and the lost saved. Yet our efforts are futile, on their own. Our endeavours a waste of time, on their own. There is one thing that 'works', one thing that ushers in revival.

Prayer, for the power of God to move again and stir the Church for the sake of the world, and draw people to Christ, is what is required. This is the kind of prayer that we should be encouraging in our churches and in our mission teams. The kind that recognises that without the power of God, the very activity of his Holy Spirit, nothing happens.

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Don't forget to check out the previous posts in the series, featuring quotes from Tom Wright, John Wimber, Richard Foster and Don Carson, the great J. C. Ryle and theologians Alister McGrath and James K. A. Smith. Since then, I've shared quotes from Justin Welby, E.M. Bounds, Vineyard Pastor Ken Wilson, C. S. Lewis,  Norwegian O'Hallesby, Paul Miller, John Piper. Recently, we've heard Matthew Henry, Charles Finney, Andrew Murray, Tim Chester, Vaughan Roberts, Oliver O'Donovan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and John Bunyan. Then we got rather retro, with quotes from Church Fathers John Chrysostom and Tertullian, before returning to more recent thinkers with Rowan Williams, Mike Reeves and Peter Jackson and Chris Wright and Andrew Case, R. C. Sproul, and (representing a slight change of tack) the Westminster Confession. Recently we considered Karl Barth, and Donald Macleod, Mary Prokes,  J. C. Ryle (again!) and last weeks was from Andrew Murray.