Church family,
On the last Sunday of 2024, our community gathered together to praise God for his faithfulness over the past year and to ask God for his favor as we enter into the year ahead. As a part of our time, we looked at Psalm 126. In this psalm, the writer is reflecting back on a time in Israel's past when the people's dreams came true. While we don't know the specific circumstances he's reflecting on, it was a time when God came through for his people in a supernatural way and rained down his grace upon their fortunes. However, when this Psalm is written, the people are living through a season of spiritual aridness. The "dreams" that God once brought have faded, and the psalmist cries in verse 4, "Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negeb."
I had the chance to travel to Israel a number of years ago, and one of the things I quickly learned is that Israel is covered in deserts, the largest being the Negeb. The ground is so dry and cemented, that when the rain eventually does come, instead of being absorbed into the earth, drops give way to rivulets that combine into dangerously powerful streams. When the psalmist asks for the Lord to rain down his grace upon Israel "like streams in the desert", he's not asking for a slow drizzle of God's grace. He's asking for a flash flood of mercy. For the Lord to "do it again" like he did in the past. To pour down his blessing upon his people in an unexpected and surprising way. It's a bold petition for revival.
This is the prayer I want to invite you to pray for our church in 2025. While I don't have hard data to back this up, as I talk to other leaders in ministry, there is a growing sense that our culture is becoming more open to questions of faith. George Hunter, a life-long student of revival observed years ago, "Individuals who have recently lost faith in anything...tend to look for something new upon which to...inform their lives. People experiencing major culture change tend to be very receptive. Culture change takes a number of forms, such as decline of traditional values, or changes in marriage and family patterns or values...A range of changes in a society's political system, from being conquered to being liberated, from oppression imposed to oppression removed, from revolution to nationalism, have all contributed to the receptivity of a people. Major economic changes, such as unemployment, underemployment, runaway inflation, mergers, acquisitions, crop failures, and plant closings have all shaken people's false securities and opened them to the gospel."
We're living through a time where people are losing faith in many of the beliefs and institutions they've relied on in the past. Bible sales increased by over 20% in 2024. Prominent figures seem to be more willing to talk about their faith in the open. Even skeptics seem to be softening to the things of God as the promises of secularism are beginning to be shown for what they are. I don't claim to know what God is going to do through our church in the year ahead, but I don't want to let that uncertainty keep us from praying Psalm 126 over our cultural moment. "Lord, do it again." You've brought awakening in the past. Lord do it again. You've opened people's eyes to the beauty of Jesus. Lord, do it again. You've been faithful to this church, Sound City, time and time again. Lord, do it again.
As we enter into an exciting year for our church, I want to invite you to bookmark Psalm 126. When you don't know what to pray for you, your family, or our church, go there and ask the Lord to pour down his mercy like streams in the Negeb.
In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing a few prayers that some of the members of our body have crafted to help stir our hunger for renewal. This week, I hope you're encouraged by this prayer from Rachael Menzie.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Reece