Sin makes us weary. It’s a weariness that comes from trying to carry the unrepented oppression of sin. That oppression makes our life feel like we are trapped in a small room with no windows and no air conditioning in the heat of summer. We begin to suffocate.
Back in the 1930s, my father delivered ice in Modesto, California. Modesto gets blazing hot in the summer. Lifting and delivering heavy blocks of ice kept my father in shape as a young boxer who fought on the weekends to make a little extra money if he won his bout.
The deliveries of ice my dad made were to keep food cool in the food lockers that predate our modern refrigerators and freezers. There were other benefits from the ice than just keeping food from spoiling. When my dad opened the back of his delivery truck a rush of cold air would surround his face. He would pause just long enough to take in a breath of the cool air that would refresh him between deliveries. Those who received a delivery were able to touch the ice and for a moment also take in its refreshment.
Once, a very wise pastor shared the history of revival with me, both personal and national revival. One of the main ingredients that sparked the beginning of those revivals was repentance. Repentance brought with it the refreshing presence of the Lord that blew in like a cool breeze. That cool and refreshing breeze was created when people heard the most powerful and impactful words a suffocating sinner can hear, “I forgive you.”
If we are looking for a revival that has the ability to radically change individual lives that will lead to a national revival, repentance is the starting point. Nothing else can promise such transformative change. Those revivals will release times of refreshing that will bring with them an end to our personal and national spiritual suffocation.
“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
Father God, Abba – cause the fresh wind of individual and corporate repentance to sweep across this nation. Let us all cry out for the Spirit to examine our hearts that we may repent for our ways and seek your forgiveness.”