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Praying for Revival

Especially since the First Great Awakening in Britain and America in the 1700s, Christians have discussed and prayed fervently for revival. Back in 2023, many of us heard about the revival that drew thousands of people to Asbury University. I’m sure that if we were asked, all of us would probably say that we would desire to see more revival in our day.

But what is revival? And how should we pray for it?

Let’s start with the first question. In short, revival is the pouring out of God’s Spirit in an amplified way that leads to a powerful work of grace in a church, community, or nation.  

We should pay attention to the following three principles about revival:

First, revival is a sovereign work of God’s grace. True revival is never the work of man. Revival cannot be coerced from God’s hand, earned, or manipulated. Revivals come and go according to God’s good pleasure.

We see God’s sovereign work in the few revivals that occur in Scripture, including the reforms of King Josiah (2 Kings 22–23) and the special work of the Spirit in Acts (e.g., Acts 2; 8:4–8). In the first example, God did a surprising work in Judah through King Josiah at a time when there were few good kings in Israel. By God’s sovereign grace, the Law was rediscovered, idolatry put down, the Passover holiday restored, and the tenor of the nation changed (for a time).

In the same way, although the experience of the apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2) is a unique, unrepeatable event, it is a model of what we long for in revival: a sovereign outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel.[1] The apostles did not coerce the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost, but they did wait, pray, and then preach when the Spirit came. Multitudes were saved, the church grew, and the gospel went forth.

The church should pray for these kinds of experiences, while realizing that we cannot schedule revivals or manipulate the outpouring of God’s Spirit. Revival is a work of God’s grace in pouring out his Spirit. So, we pray, and we wait (cf. Luke 24:49; Acts 2:1–4).

Second, revival is an extraordinary experience of the Spirit’s ordinary work. Revival is a heightening or amplifying of what the Spirit of God is always doing: drawing sinners to the Son and growing believers in the Son through the preaching of the gospel.

We shouldn’t think of revival as a different kind of work the Spirit does. What is extraordinary about revival is the degree of the Spirit’s work, not the essence of the Spirit’s work.[2] Revival occurs when the work of the Spirit is seen in an extraordinary degree. An increasing number of people see the glory of Christ and the depravity of their hearts through the preaching of the Word. They repent and believe the gospel and devote themselves to the gathering of the saints.

We see this at Pentecost in Acts 2. How did over three thousand people come to saving faith in Jesus? Peter preached the gospel to them, and they repented, believed, were baptized, and then gathered together as a church (Acts 2:14–47). All through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Our desire for revival should not lead us to downplay the ordinary ministry and experiences God has given us (Zech 4:10). Revival flows out of the ordinary ministry of the Word that the Spirit blesses in extraordinary ways. Revival may be accompanied by more tears, more fervent worship and prayer, deeper confession and repentance, more soberness and more joy, and more anointing in the preaching of the gospel. But the core essence remains the same: people respond to the glorious news of the gospel and grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, revival centers around the faithful preaching of God’s Word. Church historian Michael Haykin writes, “Genuine revival is always attended with faithful preaching of the scriptures.”[3] Revival happens as the church obeys Christ’s command to make disciples by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,” (Matt 28:20). Revival will only occur where believers are faithful to preach the Word faithfully, in season and out of season (2 Tim 4:2).

The Word of God is living and active (Heb 4:12–13). The Holy Spirit works through the Word of Christ. Revival can never be separated from the faithful preaching of the gospel. It is not merely about an emotional response or spiritual high flowing from crowd dynamics. One mark of counterfeit revival is a counterfeit gospel. True revival will only come where the true gospel is preached.

Based on this understanding, here are several ways we can pray for revival:

(1) Pray for the faithfulness of God’s people in the ordinary days and the ordinary means of grace. If we want to see revival, we should start by paying closer attention to God’s Word and living all of life by faith in Christ and the power of the Spirit. Remember: revival isn’t something completely new; it’s an extraordinary measure of what the Spirit is already doing among us if we are faithful. So, pray that we would be faithful now.

(2) Pray for an ever-deepening understanding of the good news of Jesus. Revival is all about the cross of Christ becoming more precious and glorious to us.

(3) Pray for a special work of God’s Spirit through the preaching of the Word. Make Psalm 119:25 your prayer: “I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.” When it feels like the church lies in the dust, we pray for God to breathe new life into us by his Word just as he did when he breathed life into Adam.

(4) Pray for a deeper conviction of sin in our churches. Revival begins when we confess our neediness and seek the Lord through his Word. King Josiah tore his robes when he heard the Law read for the first time (2 Kings 22:11). Are we praying for that kind of response when the Lord exposes our sin through the powerful working of his Spirit?

(5) Pray for a church-wide, community-wide, nation-wide, worldwide glimpse of the glory of God. That is true revival. British preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones described the heart of revival as a large multitude of people beholding the Lord pass by in his glory. “The prayer for revival is ultimately a prayer for the manifestation of God’s glory.”[4]

When we behold God’s glory, we behold his Name, who he is: “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation,” (Exodus 34:4–7).

When we truly see who God is in his Son through the work of the Spirit, our hearts are wrecked with the glory, the joy, the conviction of sin, faith—and revival happens.

(6) Pray for a deeper passion for and experience of…

1. The knowledge of God and his Word. When revivals occur, God’s people are revived in their delight in God through his Word.
2. Holiness. Revivals lead to a deeper passion to be holy as God is holy.
3. Love. The fruit of the Spirit is love. If we have all other spiritual manifestations but have not love, we are nothing (1 Cor 13).
4. Good works. The work of the Spirit in revival leads to a renewed passion to follow Christ and do good to all people, especially the household of faith (Gal 6:10).

Let us pray for revival. Let us long to experience “a special season of mercy” where God breathes new life into the dust.[5] Let us yearn to behold more of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us not be content with a tame Christianity but boldly seek the mighty power of God in our midst. Let us take prayer of Moses on our lips: “Lord, show us your glory!” (Ex 33:18).

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[1]Michael Haykin, “8 Qualities of True Revival,” Reformation Heritage Books Blog, accessed July 10, 2025.

[2]Iain Murray, Revival and Revivalism, 23.

[3] Michael Haykin, “8 Qualities of True Revival”.

[4] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Revival Sermon: The Glory of God,” MLJ Trust, accessed July 10, 2025.  

[5]Iain Murray, Revival and Revivalism, 22.

Praying for Our Nation

Amid the fireworks, parades, apple pies, and barbecues of this Fourth of July weekend, we should take time to pray for our nation, the United States of America.

Christians ought to pray for the lands they live in, to seek what is good for their earthly cities. We should praise God for his blessings, confess our faults and sins, pray for peace, pray for our leaders, and pray for the advance of the gospel in our land. We care deeply about our nation, while also remembering that we are exiles, citizens of heaven, who seek first the kingdom of God.

Below are several ways we can give thanks and pray for our nation:

Give thanks for the blessings God has bestowed upon our land. Every nation experiences blessings from God. Every good gift comes from above, from our Sovereign Creator. As Christians in America, we give thanks for the religious liberty we experience. We give thanks for the ways our country has promoted justice and peace in the world. We give thanks for the relative prosperity and peace we enjoy. We should thank God for the ways he has blessed us as a nation.

Confess that we are an imperfect, sinful people. We look out at our nation, and we also see many things we are not proud of. We confess the evil we see in our land. We look back at our history and confess the failures of our past.

America is not the promised land or the Kingdom of God. Sometimes, we are more like Babylon. There is injustice here, selfish ambition, sinful excess and luxury, murder of the unborn, disastrous confusion regarding marriage and gender, abuses of power, and countless other vices. As we pray for our nation, we acknowledge that our nation is full of evils we should repent of.

Pray for the peace of our nation. When Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, he wrote, “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare,” (Jeremiah 29:7). The word translated welfare in this verse is the Hebrew word shalom, the word for peace and wholeness. Though we are not literal exiles in Babylon, we too pray for the peace and the success of our nation in all that is good. We live in this land as citizens of a heavenly city, but we also seek what is good for our earthly city.

We pray for the healing of divisions. We pray for the protection of all that is good, just, and true in our land. We ask God to oppose all who would pursue the ruin and downfall of our nation. We ask God to tear down all wickedness and evil that would lead to the utter corruption of our land.

As you pray for America today, pray for true peace that seeks what is truly good and just under God.

Pray for the leaders of our nation. Paul instructs us, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way,” (1 Timothy 2:1–2). If first-century believers prayed for Caesar, we surely can pray for our president, governor, and other elected leaders, regardless of how we feel about them and their policies.

According to Paul, the goal of praying for our leaders is the opportunity to live peaceful, quiet, godly, and holy lives. In other words, we pray for our leaders so that our nation might enjoy stability and security. This provides a context for us to live peaceful, Christ-exalting lives free from the constant fear of national crisis and chaos. We pray that our leaders would promote justice and peace in our land, which gives us ample opportunities to reach our neighbors with the gospel. 

All leaders exercise authority as those under the sovereignty of God (Prov 21:1; Dan 4:17). They will give an account to God for how they use their authority. We ask that God would grant them wisdom to pursue peace and justice. We pray that they would see and confess the Lordship of Christ and that they would lead in the fear of the Lord.

Pray for the advance of the gospel within our nation. Our mission as God’s people is to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18–20). We look forward to the day when people from all nations will stand before God’s throne and praise the Lamb (Rev 7:9–10). But that should not lead us to ignore the cause of the gospel here at home.

We live in a land with many churches and many who profess the name of Christ. Yet there are more and more around us who have never heard the true gospel. We pray that God’s people here in the United States would be faithful to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. We pray that God would be pleased to send an awakening in our land that would lead many to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Pray as an exile and seek first the kingdom of God. We give thanks for our nation, and we pray for our nation. But we must never lose sight that no earthly nation is the Kingdom of God. We are citizens of that Kingdom first. Christ is our King, and he owns our highest allegiance. We care about things like the latest Supreme Court decisions and executive orders, but we also remember that they are neither our hope nor our downfall.

Even as we celebrate all that is good here in America, we remember that we await something better. We pray for God’s Kingdom to come. We live as strangers and exiles who are seeking a homeland.

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come,” (Hebrews 13:14).

Confession and Prayer

“For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.” (Psalm 25:11)

We usually do not like admitting that we are wrong. In most situations, we tend to cast ourselves in the best possible light. We may even stretch the truth to make ourselves look better.

Yet, when we come to God in prayer those tendencies must go out the window. Our guilt before God is great. There is no sugarcoating it. We pray as guilty sinners in need of God’s grace.

Therefore, confession should occupy a regular place in our prayers, both personally in our daily prayers and corporately as a church. When we pray alone and when we pray together, we should confess our sins to the Lord.

In Psalm 25:6–11, David provides us with powerful words of confession that should inform and shape our own prayers. We learn several key principles about confession from his words.

First, confession appeals to the mercy of God. In Psalm 25:6–7, David cries out for God to remember his mercy, not David’s sins. He recalls how God’s faithful love and mercy have been from of old. God’s revealed character is the basis for David’s prayer.

God is good and upright, and, therefore, he instructs sinners and leads the humble (25:8–9). The holiness of God does not merely crush sinners. God in his holiness heals humble sinners who confess their sins. He leads them to the proper path.

Thus, confession is not based on mere wishful thinking about what we hope God might do for us. Confession is rooted in God’s faithful, holy, merciful character that has been manifest to his people from ancient times. It flows out of who we know God to be, just as he revealed himself to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” (Ex 34:6–7a).

For us as Christians, our confession appeals to the mercy of God revealed in Jesus. When God sent his Son into the world, he remembered mercy. He was keeping his promise to remember the sins of his people no more (Jer 31:34). We can confess our sins and know that God is faithful and righteous to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, because Jesus is the sacrifice for our sins (1 John 1:9, 2:2).

At the same time, confession never downplays our guilt before God. While confession focuses on the merciful character of God, we should not think that this reduces the significance of our guilt or that our sin doesn’t matter. We seek God’s forgiveness because we know he is merciful and our guilt is great.

Our guilt before God is far-ranging, varied, and deep. It taints more than we realize, shows up in more ways than we care to admit, and is found in the deepest caverns of our hearts. We are guilty before God in the ways we’ve failed to obey him. Every day, we fail to love him with all our heart, soul, and might. We may not do wrong to our neighbors, but we also do not always love them as we ought.

We look at God’s Law, and we see our guilt. Idols arise in our hearts. We speak a half-truth to a coworker. Lust fills our heart. We take God’s name on our lips, while living in a way that dishonors him. Pride taints our actions and attitudes. We seek revenge, and we covet what is not ours.

If we take time to truly examine our hearts, it won’t take long for us to join David’s prayer: pardon my guilt, for it is great. Thus, if confession doesn’t form a regular part of our prayers, it may mean that we don’t really know our own hearts.

A British pastor named Thomas Brooks once encouraged believers to “make it your business to study Christ, his Word, your own hearts, Satan’s plots, and eternity—more than ever.”[1] We are often encouraged to study Christ and his Word, but what about our own hearts? Do we know what is going on within us? When we take time to study our hearts, one of our first impulses will be to seek the God of mercy, for our guilt is great.

Confession appeals to the mercy of God as it feels the weight of our guilt before him.

Confession also seeks the glory of God, not merely escape from feeling our guilt. David appeals to the glory of God’s name when he confesses his sin. He cries out to God: pardon my guilt for your name’s sake! He seeks the glory of God, not merely an escape from guilt. David’s prayer of confession is a deeply God-centered prayer.

When we confess our sins, we can base our request on the glory of God. We can pray: Forgive our sins for the glory of your name! We desire for God to be glorified in the forgiveness of our sins. Our chief end in seeking God’s forgiveness is that he would be praised and seen as glorious.

We seek God’s forgiveness so that God would get all the honor and praise in the revelation of his righteous, merciful character. We want people to see and praise God’s mercy.

Confession is not merely an escape mechanism to avoid feelings of guilt. It is not a self-centered aspect of prayer. When we confess our sins, we should express a desire for God to be praised. He is glorified in forgiving sinners because he shows that though our guilt is great, his grace is greater. He gets all the honor and praise.

So next time you go to pray, bring your sin before the Lord. Seek his mercy. Don’t gloss over your guilt. Confess your sins for the glory of the God.

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[1]Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, 13.

God-Centered Prayers

When we talk about prayer, our discussions usually center around who or what we’re praying for. We listen to prayer requests at church on Sunday. We tell a struggling or hurting friend that we are praying for them. We send “thoughts and prayers” when we hear about a tragedy. We even have a praying hands emoji to reply to a message or comment on a post.

None of these things are wrong. But sometimes we fall into the trap of giving little thought to the true center of all our prayers. We gloss over who we are praying to so we can get more quickly to what we’re praying for. Our prayers lose their proper center and become out-of-orbit prayers.

All our prayers should be God-centered prayers. They should orbit around him. All our adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication are directed to the King of the universe, the Lord of Creation, our Father in heaven. Prayer is drawing near to him through Jesus and calling out our praises, our pleas for forgiveness, our desires for his glory, our yearning for his kingdom, our requests for his provision, and our thankfulness for his goodness.

This is how Jesus taught us to pray. When we consider the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, we see a radically God-centered prayer. It is a prayer directed to the Father that reveals a desire for his glory, his kingdom, and his will and that declares our dependence on him.

Here are five specific observations about God-centered prayers rooted in Jesus’s model prayer:

First, when we pray, we should pause and remember who we are praying to: our Father in heaven. We do not come to a distant, unknown deity. We do not send up thoughts and prayers hoping they reach some benevolent force of the universe. We draw near to our heavenly Father. We come to God as our transcendent Authority. We come to God as our loving Provider. We come to God as our mighty Protector. We pray as those who know the Father through faith in the Son.

Second, the heart-beat of our prayers should be the glory of God’s name. This model prayer begins with praise and a desire that God’s name would be honored as holy in all things. All our praying should reflect a heart of worship. Our prayers are God-centered when we seek the glory of God as the chief purpose of all things.

We pray for a friend who is suffering, and we pray that God would be praised because of his work in their life. We seek God’s blessing for the ministries of our church for the sake of God’s Name, that more people would come to see him as worthy of all their devotion. God-centered prayers seek the glory of God in all things.

Third, our prayers should reveal a yearning for God’s kingdom to come. We do not pray that God would build our little kingdoms, but his kingdom. God’s kingdom is his rule over his people. It advances and spreads as more and more people trust in Jesus and bow to him as King. One day, the King will return. Do our prayers reveal a longing for that day? God-centered prayers seek God’s kingdom first.

Fourth, Jesus also taught us to pray “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven“. When Jesus mentions God’s will in Matthew 6:10, he is not talking about God’s sovereign will or plan for the world. No one can thwart or stop that will (Psalm 115:3). Jesus is talking about God’s will for how we should live. In heaven, the angels live in perfect obedience to the will of God. We should desire to see the same kind of submission to God’s will on earth, starting in our own lives.

Prayer is not about bending God to our will. It’s about conforming our hearts and lives to his revealed will in Scripture. God-centered prayers reveal a longing for deeper obedience and submission to God. They resound with a desire for righteousness and holiness in our lives and in the world.

Finally, Jesus teaches us to pray for our physical and spiritual needs. We should ask God to provide for the needs of our body. It is good and right to ask God to provide our daily bread. We also ask God to supply the forgiveness we need, protection from temptation, and deliverance from the schemes of the evil one.

God is glorified when we humbly bring our physical and spiritual needs into his presence. This honors God because it shows a recognition of our complete dependence on God. Kevin DeYoung puts it this way in his book on the Lord’s Prayer:

“If there is one thing we can be certain God wants to teach us, surely it is to convince us once again that we are frail, life is fragile, and we depend upon God for everything.”[1]

God-centered prayers are God-dependent prayers. We bring our needs to God, whatever they are, because we understand our utter reliance on our Father. 

From time-to-time, all of us need to recenter our prayers. We may find that our prayers are a little out of orbit. They sometimes orbit around our kingdom of sand rather than the King and his Kingdom.

The Lord’s Prayer helps knock our prayers back into orbit. We remember that worship is not just something we do when we sing. It involves our prayers as well. All our praying is an act of worship where we praise our King, seek his forgiveness, plead for his provision, and give thanks for his grace.

All our prayers should be God-centered prayers.

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[1]Kevin DeYoung, The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray, 49.