Our Bible verse for the day is the same as it was last week –
and what it should be every day for days ahead.
Psalm 85:6: Revive us, Lord . . . . .
so your people can laugh and sing!
This is worth memorizing:
Revive us, Lord . . . . .
so your people can laugh and sing!
It is worth praying every morning, noon and night:
Revive us, Lord . . . . .
so your people can laugh and sing!
Interestingly, the purpose for revival is so people can laugh and sing again.
This interesting and basic purpose for life is often overlooked and ignored, isn’t it?
But, it has been part and parcel of our faith for thousands of years.
These words were sung by people of faith at least 500 years before the birth of Jesus – and continue to be sung and read to this day.
It was meant that we should enjoy the time given to us.
Every single Sunday our worship service begins with the words “This is the day the Lord has made, let rejoice and be glad!” – another song sung by people of faith for thousands of years.
Years later, after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the Apostle Paul gave three instructions to a group of believers who were interested in starting a new church in Thessalonia:
He wrote:
1. rejoice always
2. pray without ceasing
3. give thanks in all circumstances
You see, for Paul and for those first believes, the Church is the people who invite each other to rejoice together.
Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstance.
You might have expected Paul to put prayer first, you know: 'the Church is the people who pray together';
but he does not.
It's joy that comes first.
And, whether or not this occurred to Paul, it's profoundly important.
Unless we're filled with joy we really cannot pray.
And unless we pray we cannot give thanks"
You see, people of faith have known all along what modern research is confirming over and over again:
there is power in proclamation –
there is power in suggestion –
there is power in attitude.
Especially in the face of difficulties and unbearable circumstances, rejoicing –
laughing and singing – leads to revival –
leads to changed reality –
leads to God’s purpose for our lives.
Some you will remember Alan Paton.
Alan Paton wrote a book years ago that immediately hit the best-seller charts and is still read in classrooms today, Cry, The Beloved Country containing stories of his beloved
South Africa.
In the book Alan Paton relays a story about an old South African pastor, Stephen Kumalo, has gone to Johannesburg to find his son Jonathan.
When he finds him, Jonathan is in jail for killing a white lawyer named Arthur Jarvis, who was an advocate of black rights and had written a book about the urgency for justice in that hate-filled country.
Kumalo then goes to the elder Jarvis, the lawyer's father, to apologize for his son's crime.
Instead of refusing to see him or berating him for Jonathan's deed, Jarvis receives him kindly.
He has been reading the manuscript of his son's book, and it has spoken to him of what must be done.
Learning that Kumalo's little church in the village of Ndotsheni needs a new house of worship, old man Jarvis vows to build it for them.
He also promises to send great earthmoving equipment and build a dam for the village, so that the people will have a year-round water supply.
Now, word of that promise got around fast.
The very rumor of what is to be done sends a shock wave of hope through the populace of Ndotsheni.
There will be water for irrigation.
They can raise cattle.
There will be food and milk for the children, so that the young will no longer drift off to the cities to find work.
There will be laughter and singing and dancing again.
Then Alan Paton writes: Nothing has happened yet;
yet it is as if it has.
"Although nothing has happened yet, yet something is here already." Everything is changed.
There is power in proclamation.
This is the day the lord has made is not an insignificant statement.
Revive us, Lord . . . . so your people can laugh and sing is not an idle prayer –
when you do live your days laughing and singing,
when you do rejoice,
when you do see joy in all things and all circumstances,
change happens,
revival takes place.
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