For A Time Such As ThisSample

"For A Time, Such As This" by Rocky Fleming

DAY TWO 

The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.  Isaiah 57:15 NLT

I love God’s restorative heart.  There is no love greater than His, and there is no one that responds to humility and brokenness better than Him.  Look at the words that point to what He wants to do for a crushed spirit and a repentant person.  “Restore the crushed spirit and revive courage.”  Restore and revive.  What opens His heart to give us such an amazing gift?  Again, look at the words and conditions mentioned.  Contrite and repentant.

I think we know what repent is, I think?  Some may think it is only feeling sorry for something they did.  They “repent” and generally go back to doing the same old thing they repented for.  This is not repentance.  True repentance is to wholeheartedly agree with God that I have sinned against Him.  It is to be brokenhearted over my sin.  It is to feel its shame and to feel desperate for forgiveness from God.  It is to turn away from it.  It is go another away and keep distancing myself from that which I repent of.  That is a better description of repentance rather than just feeling sorry, and until true repentance happens, we will remain in a distant state from Holy God, and our prayers will be hindered.

Contrite is another condition God mentions and is also likely misunderstood.  What does the word mean?

Contrite: “feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.”

When we couple contrite and repent together, we get a better idea how God describes approaching Him in our prayer requests.  We must do so by being in a right place with Him, by seeing Him as holy beyond our ability to approach Him casually.  We are made ready to approach Him, when we get blatantly honest with Him about our condition.  A contrite spirit and repentant heart prepare us to come before Him with our requests.  Then look what happens:

“Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” (James 5:16 NLT)

In the passages that I’ve referenced we see God’s Holy Word instructing us with how to have our prayers heard, acted on, and in many cases granted.  The first thing we need to know is that following God’s guidelines with contrite, humble repentance, we are given forgiveness and we are put in a right place with Him.  This makes us righteous and the promise that it will produce wonderful results is given.  It also tells us that God wants to answer our prayers, and He is showing us how to be given the wonderful results we pray for.  

We need to look at our lives and look into them and see if there is anything that will hinder our prayers.  How do we do this?  Let’s start by asking Holy Spirit to reveal to us blind spots in our life.  Help us see those things that hinder our prayers.  It could be unconfessed sin, or a condition such as bitterness, unforgiveness or lack of faith that hinders our prayers.  Let us confess and repent with contriteness and repentance of those things that hinder our prayers.  Our open and intimate relationship with Christ will take us to a new place.

I believe the Lord is stirring up His Church.  I believe He is waking us up.  We need many prayers that come from righteous people asking that He send revival to His family.  We need to shower His throne room with this request.  I also believe that He wants to hear this from us.  He’s been waiting for His Church to call out to Him with unity of heart and purpose.  Now is the time for God’s family to wake up and call out to Him.