Lord, do it again

In 1739, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and about 60 others, many students from Oxford University, held a love feast in London. Prayer continued until three in the morning, and they reported, “The power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy.” They believed that God was about to break through in revival and spent whole nights in prayer.

Whitefield preached with great power. He was only 22 years old, but wherever he spoke, crowds flocked to hear him. His rooms were filled with praying Oxford students. Crowds increased each day at one church building until they overflowed outside and eventually twenty-thousand people gathered. God’s Spirit gripped many as Whitefield preached, as did the audiences of Charles and John Wesley.

In colonial America, Jonathan Edwards, a Massachusetts pastor, began to pray for the unconverted. According to Edwards “the worst persons in the town seemed to be suddenly seized with a great degree of concern about their souls.” Church records of this time period indicate that as much as one-third of the population of the American colonies had had a salvation experience.

Lord, send us a revival again. Psalms 85:6 says it so well, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You?”