Thursday, August 28, 2008

Grace Gems: Revive Me


Revive me!

(Octavius Winslow)

"My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according
to Your Word." Psalm 119:25

"Revive me, Lord--quicken Your work in my soul,
and strengthen that which You have wrought in me.
The love which congeals, the faith which trembles, the
hope which fluctuates, the joy which droops--inspire
with new life, new energy, new power! It is of little
importance what others think of me; Lord, You know
that my soul cleaves to the dust. There is in my heart
more of earth than of heaven; more of self than of
Christ; more of the creature than of God. You know
me in secret--how my grace wanes, how my affections
chill, how seldom my closet is visited, how much my
Bible is neglected, how insipid to my taste are the
means of grace, and how irksome and vapid are all
spiritual duties and privileges. Lord, stir up Yourself to
the revivifying of my soul; quicken, oh, revive me!"



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9 comments:

Stephanie said...

I love Grace Gems. Love them. Did I mention I love them? :)

What a great prayer - "Revive me!"
It says so much...I so desire for God to wake me up spiritually, to give me a more passionate love for Himself and for serving Him. There is always further to go...I'm so thankful for His grace in our sanctification process!

Penn Tomassetti said...

"to the revivifying of my soul." What a word - "Revivifying"! :)

That is what I need every day - to be revivified.

Moon said...

I love Grace Gems as well! Seriously its like every time I go through something, the Grace Gem of that day talks about exactly what I needed to hear.
This one reminded me of Psalm 119 (my absolute favorite), in verse 40 it says:
"Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: Quicken me in thy righteousness." (Psalm 119:40 ASV)
In spanish, the word used here is VivifĂ­came, which is the same as revive me, or vivify me.

Penn Tomassetti said...

Wow, that is really cool, Rita.

Hey, I've been doing some pondering over human responsibility and God's Sovereignty, and wanted to ask you this: What do you think it means when it says, "quicken (or vivificame) me in thy righteousness?"

BTW: I love that verse and entire Psalm, too.

Moon said...

In light of that antinomy, while we do have the responsability of for example "turning our eyes away from vanity" (psalm 37), we are taught in God's word that it is "God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." and it is through the Holy Spirit that we are lead to paths of righteousness, but that can only happen when we are revived in Christ. Does that make sense?
As for the psalm the Psalmist is asking here to be revived or be made alive in God's righteousness, so he may keep those precepts or commandments of God he has longed for.
Its his constant cry throughout the entire psalm, for God to teach him, to give him understanding that he may keep His commandments.
v.35-36 "Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!"
v.44-45 "I will keep your law continually, forever and ever, and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts."

Penn Tomassetti said...

Thanks, Rita. Those verses are great, that's why I love Psalm 119, because it is my prayer also. That audio "antinomy" was really good. I didn't know Ravi Zach. was a Sovereign grace person. It was good to hear.

Moon said...

You're welcome!
you know what I love most about psalm 119? the passion the psalmist feels for God and His word, and even in times when he feels like he has strayed away his prayer is "seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments."
Hope you have a great weekend, God bless ya!

Penn Tomassetti said...

I know what you mean about Psalm 119. I actually attempted to begin to memorize it. I haven't really done any memorizing of it yet, but I have memorized other shorter Psalms. I can remember many nights where I poured over those verses, praying "Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" (v. 36).

Moon said...

"I actually attempted to begin to memorize it."
Me too! but I was trying to memorize it in spanish...that's why I wrote this post: Excellencias de La Ley de Dios (The Excellencies of God's Law)
I was doing one octonary a week, reading one verse a day (on saturdays I read 2) and meditating on that verse for the entire day.
I got to memorize the first 16 verses, but then was overwhelmed by the thought of memorizing 176 verses!