In recent weeks, many Christian leaders have started to speak out about our need for a 2 Chronicles 7:14-style season of national repentance and revival.
At the Man in the Mirror Men's Bible Study, we decided to take action. Here's a description of what we did in our one hour meeting last Friday:
I kicked it off at 7:05 a.m. with a 5 to 7 minute introduction reciting 2 Chronicles 7:14 and posing the questions, "If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?"
Then we spent about 20 minutes for men to do "private" 2 Chronicles 7:14 prayer and repentance in their regular table groups of 6 to 12 men.
Next, we invited men to an open mic at the front to offer "public" prayer and thoughts on our need for revival.
At 7:50 a.m., in accordance with 1 John 1:9, we asked men to confess their sins in writing and make prayer requests on 3 x 5 cards, then come forward and place them at the base of two tall crosses on tables in the front of the room.
I concluded with a prayer asking God to hear our prayers, intervene, and send his Spirit to heal our land.
Observations: Many men were visibly moved. One man wept on my shoulder. Another said, "I really needed this." One leader said, "We were just getting started." There is still a lot of unfinished business. Personally, I felt it was like eating one potato chip. I can see that this needs to be the beginning, not the end, of our prayers for national repentance and revival.
Challenge: We are in a financial recession, but we've been in a moral, family, and spiritual depression for decades. Some problems are just too big to be solved anywhere except on our knees. Would you be willing to ask God if he wants you to organize a prayer meeting for national repentance and revival? You could use or adapt the format we used, or come up with one of your own.
