Why Revival Tarries – Chapter 2

No man is greater than his prayer life! The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying.

Ravenhill starts chapter two off with a bang. It is so easy to read past that statement, so lets look at it again: No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. I am deeply convicted of my lack of prayer as I read through this chapter.

He goes on to say that the church has many organizers, but few agonizers; many players and payers, few pray-ers; many singers, few clingers; lots of pastors, few wrestlers; many fears, few tears; much fashion, little passion; many interferers, few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters. Failing here, Ravenhill says, we fail everywhere. I think one of the main reasons for this is our lack of humility. We would rather be seen than labor in prayer in private. Lord forgive us.

He then asks, Can any deny that in the modern church setup the main cause of anxiety is money? Yet that which tries the modern churches the most, troubled the New Testament Church the least. Our accent is on paying, theirs was on praying. When we have paid, the place is taken; when they had prayed, the place was shaken!

Chapter two is a short chapter that discusses prayer, the lack of passionate prayer warriors in our churches and the new testaments concern for prayer over their concern for money. I pray that the Lord would raise up men and women in our churches, men and women who count others as greater than themselves and who don’t care about being known by other men, but that they would be known by you God. That is enough.

I will close this short post with a quote from chapter 2:

The world hits the trail for hell with a speed that makes our fastest plane look like a tortoise; yet alas, few of us can remember the last time we missed our bed for a night of waiting upon God for a world shaking revival! Our compassions are not moved.