A Heart for Revival is a 21-day prayer guide designed to quicken your spirit and focus your heart regarding personal and community revival.
(I’ll be sharing devotions from it each Tuesday for the next several months — though, if you’d rather enjoy them in a daily format, the eBook or PDF versions are available here for download.)
“They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
— Psalm 126:5-6
Quoting E. M. Bounds, Ravenhill penned,
“There are tears that are only surface slush of an iceberg,”
meaning there was no passion behind those tears, but simply an outward thaw of a frigid spirit.
If one was good enough at crying, they had a job in New Testament times. Alfred Edersheim, in Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah wrote,
“hired ‘mourners’ would alternate between extravagant praises of the dead and calls upon the attendants to lament; or that, as was their wont, they would strike on their breast, beat their hands, and dash about their feet, or break into wails and mourning songs, alone or in chorus” (V2, page 317).
And while that may suffice for those desiring an outward expression, it is not the weeping that moves the heart of God—or brings revival.
Spurgeon writes,
“It is not every sowing which is thus insured against all danger, and guaranteed a harvest; but the promise specially belongs to sowing in tears. When a man’s heart is so stirred that he weeps over the sins of others, he is elect to usefulness. Winners of souls are first weepers for souls. As there is no birth without travail, so is there no spiritual harvest without painful tillage. When our own hearts are broken with grief at man’s transgression we shall break other men’s hearts.”
What does it take to find your field to sow in tears?
First is to get out of the house and into the field—meaning get reacquainted with the hopelessness of the lost, see the pain in their eyes and the hurt in their heart.
As you sow remember that seeds don’t grow without water; thus, each prayer needs a tear to quicken its germination. Recall the day of your salvation; remember the guilt of sin that bore so heavy on your soul and how your tears of repentance sent your shame adrift.
Prayer Focus
Sow five seeds today by praying for five people, by name, to be saved—and if five people don’t come to mind quickly commit to get out in the field to find them.
