Is your heart open to restoration?
2 Corinthians 6:4-5 – But as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.
When a group causes a public disturbance in the destruction of property or harming of innocent people, their civil unrest becomes a riot. They tend to be emotional responses to some perceived injustice or attempt at gaining power. When rioters become a mob, they can be difficult to restrain.
Many riots broke out—or were threatened—in the Bible: Lot in Sodom, Gideon and Baal, the leaders in Jerusalem against Jeremiah, and, seemingly, each time the Apostle Paul preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Righteousness was a threat. In Acts 17:5. It took a few wicked, jealous men from the marketplace to form a mob and start a riot. In verse 6 they revealed themselves, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” Paul was seeking revival; some responded with rioting. Rioting and lawlessness has exploded across the United States during the summer of 2020, with their mayhem including damage to federal buildings, local police precincts, looting of businesses, arson, physical attacks, and fatal shootings. What the people of Christ need to be doing in response is seeking revival. Following today’s verse, Paul writes his recipe for beginning that revival: by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and through praise. Revival and restoration begin with personal repentance. Keep your heart wide open to all that God can do!
Pray With Us
God our Father, I watch in horror at the things that have happened in America’s streets, and the injustices that have precipitated them. In my heart, I know that these things occur because people have forsaken You and Your Word. Your principles guide my life, but many of those engaged in the civil unrest do not know those principles because they don’t know You. I pray, O God, that You would use righteous men and women across America to press into these groups with the truth by Your power. This nation needs revival. We need to be restored to You and to Your Son, Jesus. Whatever happens with this election, Lord, keep Your hand over America and do not let us be destroyed by the rioters. I pray these things in the Name of Jesus, by whom the world needs to be turned upside down once again.
Amen.
