One recent rare occasion when I was up at this time, I was wondering why they do this, and a reason came to me. (I've since read that scientists believe it's males attracting mates, but I like my reason better and I'm sticking with it.) The reason that came to me is that, at some point they started doing it, and they've being doing it for so long that they associate it with the sun rising. And being creatures of instinct and survival, they now figure that if they don't do it the sun won't come up!
This got me thinking about our prayer lives. Are we praying for things
(like revival*) as if our prayers are absolutely necessary for it to
come to pass? For some reason, in God's divine ordering of things, they
are! It goes with the free will thing. Just as man's love for God cannot
satisfy His (God's) heart without a free will (choice) engaged, so
God's [good] purposes for man cannot be accomplished without man's
active cooperation.
I will give you an example. A couple years ago my friend was in a coma and dying from surgery complications. I had a distinct, heavy feeling in my spirit that he was going to die. There wasn't any rest in my spirit like it was his time to depart, just heaviness and despair. Now, should I have just sat there and said "it's all good!"? (A phrase I hate incidentally - it is NOT "all good"). No! I prayed fervently that my friend would live. And he miraculously did.
Now do I believe that my prayers alone saved this man? No. But the fact is I really don't know, maybe they did!
Let us commit (or re-commit) ourselves to fervent prayer, even rising as early as the birds in the morning, and pray His will be done. If we don't do it, who will?
* one definition of revival is "a spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy or stagnation"
I will give you an example. A couple years ago my friend was in a coma and dying from surgery complications. I had a distinct, heavy feeling in my spirit that he was going to die. There wasn't any rest in my spirit like it was his time to depart, just heaviness and despair. Now, should I have just sat there and said "it's all good!"? (A phrase I hate incidentally - it is NOT "all good"). No! I prayed fervently that my friend would live. And he miraculously did.
Now do I believe that my prayers alone saved this man? No. But the fact is I really don't know, maybe they did!
Let us commit (or re-commit) ourselves to fervent prayer, even rising as early as the birds in the morning, and pray His will be done. If we don't do it, who will?
* one definition of revival is "a spiritual reawakening from a state of dormancy or stagnation"
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