Based on the structure and wording of Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:2–9), he must have been familiar with the Psalms of Israel. I wonder if he was familiar with Psalm 85, a passage that records a cry for revival: “Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause Your anger toward us to cease. Will You be angry with us forever? Will You prolong Your anger to all generations? Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation” (Psalm 85:4).
I honestly wonder sometimes how many Christians would want God to revive them. Does that thought ever cross your mind? “I like my church, and I like my friends. You don’t want me to be serious about all this, do you? I mean, after all, if we have revival, I would have to change some of the things I do. My lifestyle would be different than it is. I wouldn’t be just a Christian then. I would be a sold-out, committed Christian.” Yes, you would, and that’s exactly what God wants! When revival comes, everything that is not central to our faith in Christ is put on the periphery, and our focus becomes totally Him and His work and His purpose for us on this earth. As I talk with Christians all over, I find a kind of comfortable apathy about these things. But until we are willing to come and pray the prayer of Psalm 85, “O God, restore us again, revive us again,” we will just float along in our comfortable Christianity and never see the moving of the Spirit of God upon us.
It is easy for us to study revival, to think how exciting it was what God did in the Book of Jonah. But true revival starts in me, in my heart.
Excerpted from The Runaway Prophet
, by David Jeremiah.
I honestly wonder sometimes how many Christians would want God to revive them. Does that thought ever cross your mind? “I like my church, and I like my friends. You don’t want me to be serious about all this, do you? I mean, after all, if we have revival, I would have to change some of the things I do. My lifestyle would be different than it is. I wouldn’t be just a Christian then. I would be a sold-out, committed Christian.” Yes, you would, and that’s exactly what God wants! When revival comes, everything that is not central to our faith in Christ is put on the periphery, and our focus becomes totally Him and His work and His purpose for us on this earth. As I talk with Christians all over, I find a kind of comfortable apathy about these things. But until we are willing to come and pray the prayer of Psalm 85, “O God, restore us again, revive us again,” we will just float along in our comfortable Christianity and never see the moving of the Spirit of God upon us.
It is easy for us to study revival, to think how exciting it was what God did in the Book of Jonah. But true revival starts in me, in my heart.
Excerpted from The Runaway Prophet
, by David Jeremiah. 
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