2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Gypsy Smith returned to America to hold his fifth revival crusade in the United States. As he walked through the city where his first meeting would begin, he meditated on the sermon he was about to preach and prayed for souls to be saved. Near the rented auditorium, a large sign caught his eye. “Gypsy Smith: The Greatest Evangelist in the World.” The Holy Spirit pricked his heart, and upon entering the meeting hall, he demanded that the sign be taken down immediately.
We tend to think of pride as an insignificant issue—at least in our own lives. But God sees it as an abomination. “Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD” (Proverbs 16:5a). It is ludicrous to think that we can have revival without God, yet we drive Him away through our pride and self-sufficiency. “Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off” (Psalm 138:6). God is not attracted to our boasting but to our brokenness. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
Humility is the common thread that ties all of God’s usable servants together. The letter “I” is the middle letter in the word pride, and it is the middle letter in the word sin. We need to be reminded several times each year to have a funeral for self. The “I” of our lives must die and be buried if revival ever come to our lives, our churches, and our communities.
When we ponder what Christ has done for us, we will pray and live the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Begin this new year by dying to self. Revival is born on the grave of pride.
This devotional is taken from “Revival Today”, by Dr. John Goetsch, Striving Together Publications, 2018.
