David Brody: We Need a Time Out

Honestly, I’m sick of it. I’ve had enough. All the personal attacks between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is just too much. Look, I enjoy the occasional zinger once in a while. It’s par for the course in politics but this whole “wife tweet drama” is childish and unnecessary. There’s enough blame to go around, so I’m not going to even go there. And I’m surely not going to play the kindergarten game of “he started it.” It’s not worth it, and quite frankly, who cares?

Evangelicals are simply turned off by all of this. Trump does himself no favors with evangelicals by retweeting side-by-side wife pictures and Cruz does himself no favors by accusing Trump as being the one behind the salacious National Enquirer article without concrete proof. It’s a no-win situation for both of them. It’s a political turn off for evangelicals.

What we really need is a reboot. What we really need is a time out for prayer; a prayer for civility, a prayer for wisdom and a prayer for spiritual revival in this country. With all due respect to anyone running for President of the United States, our problems will not be solved with a new commander in chief. In addition, if we’re waiting for congressional Democrats and republicans to have a “Kumbaya” moment, we’ll be waiting a long time. Rather, our nation will begin to heal when we individually seek Jesus on our knees and pray that He brings about spiritual revival to our country. Think that it’s far-fetched? It’s happened before and it can happen again.

So without further adieu, I now present a few prayers for revival and spiritual awakening. They come from the book, How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life by Dr. Gregory Frizzell.

Pray for God’s Mercy Upon Our Land:

“Holy Father, I humbly plead for Your underserved mercy upon my life, my church, my nation and world. Lord, help us come before You with deep awareness we deserve Your judgment far more than Your blessing. By Jesus’ blood alone, we plead for Your merciful grace to revive and bless us once again” (Ps. 85:4-7; Lam. 3:22; Dan. 9:18-19).

Pray for a Spirit of Brokenness and Repentance:

“Righteous God, please send overwhelming conviction of sin, deep brokenness and genuine repentance among Your people. Grant to us the true godly sorrow that leads to repentance. Fill us with holy fear and reverence for Your name. Purify the Bride of Christ for His Glorious Second Coming. Please prepare and cleanse us for the marriage supper of the Lamb of God” (Ps. 51:17; Prov. 28:13; 2 Cor. 7:1, 10;).

Pray for Boldness, Holiness and Power in Our Pastors:

“Mighty God, please come upon our pastors with deep repentance, dynamic power and renewed passion for Yourself. Grant to him a mighty wall of protection from the world, the flesh and the devil” (1 Tim. 3:1-2; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; 1 Cor. 2:4).

Pray for Fervent Prayer to Sweep Our Land:

“Righteous God, grant to us a burning hunger for Yourself and a passion for fervent prayer. Help us draw near to You and seek You with all our hearts. Lord, cause us to hunger and thirst for You above all else. Help us lead our churches to become houses of prayer for all nations” (Jer. 29:13; Matt. 5:6, 21:13; Acts 2:1; Phil. 2:13; James 4:8).

Pray for Sweeping Revival in the Church:

“Righteous Lord, we ask You to send sweeping revival even if it takes hard times and great trials to prepare the soil of our hearts. Father, we pray not for shallow selfish ends, but for Your great glory and kingdom. Cause us to come to You in true humility, brokenness and contriteness of heart” (Matt. 26:39; James 4:1-4).

So how exactly do you pray for revival? Saying these prayers are important but God is concerned about the heart most of all. Read more below cbn.com on this.

The first thing that all of us must do if we want to pray for spiritual revival is to recommit ourselves to a life exemplified by personal holiness.

That requires two things. First, you need to forgive others. Maybe it is a family member, a friend or business associate. As long as you hold on to unforgiveness and bitterness, it will stifle your relationship with God. Through the death of His son, He forgives you, and you must be willing to forgive others.

Second, you have to love God. That seems so simple, but too many Christians have become luke-warm in their faith (Rev. 3:16). They don’t spend time with god in a daily devotional or they don’t think worship is important. Then they wonder why their prayers seem powerless.

As Jesus taught, the Ten Commandments can be summarized as, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:37, 39).

If you don’t have those things, you need to ask God to give them to you. It’s crucial that you have love for God and love for your fellow man. With those two things, you begin personal revival.

The next thing that we really need is revelation of God. You must ask God’s Spirit to come into you. Pray, “Lord, anoint me with Your Spirit. Give me a revelation of Your Spirit.” We need to know what God is doing so we can pray and live accordingly.
In many ways, we’ve become too familiar with God. You’ve probably heard people say, “He’s the man upstairs,” or “He’s an old buddy.” The truth is, He is a consuming fire who created the universe.

Yes, He’s a loving Father, but we must realize that we are talking about the Creator of the universe.

As the Bible says, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully” (Ps. 24:3-4). If you want to have a more intimate walk with God, and pray with power, don’t try to get chummy with Him. Instead, you need to ask Him, “Cleanse me. Wash me. Take away my pride. Break me. Humble me.”

Wake Up America!

In a similar way, we must ask God to stir the hearts of others to join this movement of prayer. To do this, others across America—men and women from all walks of life—must have a revelation of God and a sense of God’s holiness. The nation must be made aware that it is sinning against a holy God; that the Ten Commandments do matter, that adultery does matter, that theft does matter, that coveting does matter, that having other gods before Him does matter.

As the nation humbles itself before God, recognizing that He is concerned about us breaking His law, true revival comes. Then there will be a sense of the awe and majesty of God.

Finally—and this is very important—remember that spiritual revival means “life anew.” We have a great religious heritage in this country, and we need to see it revived. We need a sense of holiness and godliness so that this nation will, once again, be one nation under God. And when God’s people get serious about praying for revival, God will hear and answer His people, and restore faith to many across this nation.

David Brody is an Emmy Award winning 23-year veteran news journalist who is currently the Chief Political Correspondent for CBN News.

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