Many groups of people organized under the title of their religious or denominational sect schedule to hold “revival services” or “awakening services.”  To the nonbeliever the wonder is, why? What is this for? What is the need? Why celebrate God?  Do they believe God is going to visit them? What’s all the excitement? Like these questions, there are many more I have heard through the years by nonbelievers in God who question these events.  

         Whatever the reason for these events, aside from the eyes of the unbelieving community that sees and wonders with skepticism, the barometer should be to read the genuineness of the people acting as if they are seeking God or believing in God.  Believers and those who proclaim to believe in God, need to be aware that God and nonbelievers who oppose the beliefs are watching those who are professing their faith in this way.  From what they see in society, read, and hear about people who proclaim faith in God, nonbelievers will seek ways to underscore their own unbelief and discredit the profession of another’s faith.  They will go as far as to underscore their belief in the absence of a god and consider revival announcements as ludicrous or pomp and circumstance. 

         Some faiths believe that holding revivals is not of God and that such activities are not supported by the scriptures. Some commentators are concerned over the image that it conveys of those who claim to have faith.  Whatever the reasons for the event, what tends to be missing seems to be a cognitive self-assessment by the group and the individuals professing to believe. There is a reason for the words from the prophet Isaiah [יְשַׁעְיָהוּ‎]: ‘Wash yourselves clean, put your evil doings away from My sight. Cease to do evil;’ (Isa. 1:16)  If Isaiah’s words are not embraced, then what are their group and individual expectations?  Do they expect to bring God down to their level?  Is there any concern or recognition for their hubris? Is there any consideration for changing from their self-centeredness and ego?  Such consideration should accompany a life-changing desire and commitment to return to the ways of God, i.e., a fervent yearn for a selfless relationship with God.          

         Through the years, I have been involved with these events. Over and over, it seemed to be a ritual and did not recognize that you only revive what is dying and awaken what is sleeping.  Very few have a perspective that embraces the crucial commitment for a relationship with God that is not about themselves and what they can seek to gain. All too many focus on themselves.  It’s not about what one can get from God now and after one passes away.  The shocker to many is that life is about doing one’s part with one’s God-given life on earth.  Living one’s purpose to make the world godly; it starts with each and every person.  Anything else would be selling God short on so much of what God has done for us all.

         Acknowledging the depth of grace that we all have been given is as considering each day as a gift undeserved.  Returning to the ways of God with heart and soul makes God feel welcomed in one’s life.  That is the ‘reviving’ spark for living in a selfless relationship with God, as God has always wanted.