When Pastors Pray for Revival

Over the years I have heard many pastors pray for revival, and I've often wondered what that really means.

I've come to understand that revival starts in the hearts of each individual person. It comes when we look honestly at our lives before God's word and acknowledge our own sinfulness, repent, and turn away from those sins.

It happens when we stop looking at what others are doing wrong (the speck in our brothers eye), and start looking at our own actions (the plank in our own eye) and begin to make changes within ourselves. (Matthew 7:3)

When we stop placing our focus on what others are doing or not doing, and begin looking at what we are doing ourselves, and asking "Are MY actions pleasing to God?, if not, what does God desire for me to change in myself?"

So when will there be a revival? That depends, on when we start turning God's mirror back on ourselves and praying as the Psalmist did:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Psalm 139:23-24 NIV)