Mini Revival

Posted on February 22, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

 

It’s Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the 40-day (+ Sundays) season of repentance and preparation. Think of it as your personal mini-revival.

 

Psalm 23:3
(AMP)
He refreshes and restores my soul (life).

(VOICE))
He makes me whole again.

 

 

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Imagining Revival

Posted on February 21, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

I work in a high school. I bemoan the students’ attachment to their phones — texting, TikTok, YouTube, and more. I often think the world was a better place without them.


On to the Asbury revival: leaders text to keep up with the ever-changing situation. Millions of young people are learning about it via TikTok. And I’ve listened to on-the-spot testimonies via, you guessed it, YouTube.

 

I’ve long prayed for revival. Never did I imagine how God would use things I dislike to make it happen.

Ephesians 3:20 (ICB)
God can do much, much more
than anything we can ask or think.

 

 

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Send Revival

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

I’ve long been praying for revival in America. I’m excited to read that it’s really happening. I hope to see it happen closer to home.

 

“Let us return to the basic things of the Word of God and prayer and soul winning and revival. Let us pray, ‘O God, send a revival. Let it begin in me.'”
Lee Roberson (1909-2007)

 

In me? Oh yes. Can’t get any closer to home!

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Simply Broken

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

I recently heard a discouraging report about Baltimore schools: only 7% of 3rd through 8th graders can do grade-level math. Last year I read that at one high school, less than 2% of seniors were able to read at grade level. 

 

This makes me sad. Surely Baltimore isn’t the only place like this.

Something’s broken. Very broken.

Lord, give us, as a nation, eyes to see the broken homes, broken communities, broken spirits, broken systems. Break our hearts, O God. Give us wisdom to know what to do and the will to follow through.

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Fair Enough

Posted on February 16, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Consider Christ’s parable of the workers in the vineyard. The landowner hired workers in the early morning, in the middle of the day, and at the last hour. 

 

Matthew 20:9-10 (MEV)
When they who were hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 

But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, but each of them likewise received a denarius. 

“It’s not fair,” the first-comers complained. 

God rewards late-comers with the same salvation as early believers. I accepted Christ as a child. I’m an early-comer. And I’m not complaining. 

Fair enough, Lord. It’s all good.

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Never Enough

Posted on February 15, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

God is always enough.
The other side is never enough.

 

Proverbs 27:20 (AMP)
Sheol (the place of the dead) and Abaddon (the underworld) are never satisfied; Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

 

Which side are you on?

 

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More Than Enough

Posted on February 14, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

God goes beyond “enough.”


Ephesians 3:20 (MSG)
God can do anything, you know—
far more than you could ever
imagine or guess or request
in your wildest dreams!

 

Salvation would be more than enough. And yet God goes above and beyond, giving me more than I can ask or think.

Thank You, O God, for your extravagant generosity!

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Good Enough

Posted on February 13, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


I know some folks who think at the ends of their days, God will weigh their good deeds and their bad deeds. If they’re good enough — if their good works outweigh the bad — God lets them into heaven.

 

Not so, says the Bible.

Romans 3:23 (ERV)
All have sinned and are not good enough
to share God’s divine greatness.

God is good. Thankfully, He’s also gracious. And for we who believe, grace is enough.

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Extravagant Prayer

Posted on February 10, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott

 

Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV)
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

.


Paul wasn’t afraid to ask for God’s biggest and best.

 

 

Don’t be afraid to pray extravagantly.

 

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Pinches of Prayer

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Shirlee Abbott


Leviticus 16:12 (NIV)
He [Aaron the priest] is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain.

Two handfuls of prayerful incense! My experience with incense has been limited to cones and sticks—more like pinches than handfuls.

Sometimes our prayers are all pinches: a quick prayer in the morning, another short prayer as at bedtime, grace before meals, pleas for safety behind the wheel. Our slivers of prayer waft up to God.

Lord, I long for handfuls of fragrant prayer!

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