Cover2Cover - July 28

July 28, 2019 Sharon Kaselonis

Useful Revival

Today’s Through the Bible Reading: Nahum 1 – 3; 2 Kings 23:1-28; 2 Chronicles 35:1-19

“Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses…” 2 Kings 23:25 NKJV

One look at the world around us and we know the world needs one thing more than any other – REVIVAL. The world really needs men and women who, like King Josiah, will turn to the Lord with all their heart, soul, and mind. The word “revival” is defined as “the restoration to life and the restoration to use.” Interesting. True revival not only includes restoration to life in God, but a restoration to use for God. And that’s our Lord – He restores to both life and use – for His glory!

“…if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful…5][-prepared for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:21 NASB

And it shouldn’t be a surprise to you by now that we find a perfect example of this New Testament principal in today’s Old Testament reading. King Josiah’s life, and his response after experiencing God’s tug on his heart, give us a picture of what true revival really looks like.

It all started with Josiah reading God’s law, then repentance was experienced, evangelism practiced, the temple repaired, God’s instruction sought, the law studied, and sin dealt with. Josiah’s love for God was infectious. He implemented righteousness and all of Israel benefited.

We often think of revival as merely the times when the Lord’s presence is experienced in a unique and fresh way, like when He tugs on hearts and tears start to flow or when we hear an altar call and the seemingly worst of the sinners get up out of their row to receive Jesus. These times are precious indeed, but they are just part – or really the start – of being really revived. As we can see from Josiah’s story, God intends revival to include both restoration to life in Him AND restoration to use for Him! Oh that He would revive our hearts today that we might be restored to life in Him and to use for Him.