He Can

“Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy! —Habakkuk 3:2

Since we ourselves are God’s workmanship (Eph. 2:10), the prayer for God to revive His work is, in part, a prayer for Him to revive us. It is a prayer that He will revive us, not remove us. That He will restore us, not replace us. That He will bring back to vitality that which has been fading away in us.

Furthermore, we ask that He does this “in these years,” which is a recognition that we are, by God’s grace, revive-able. We are not beyond hope. We have not flatlined. We can be revived.

Above all, the prayer for revival is a trusting prayer, a proclamation that it was God who gave us life in the first place and that no one other than He can bring that life back to strength and fullness. We don’t want to settle for what man can do; we want to see what only He can do.