How To Revive Our Spirits and Get Our Spark Back – Psalm 85

Psalm 85:6

Will You not Yourself revive us again, That Your people may rejoice in You?

How To Revive Our Spirits and Get Our Spark Back – Psalm 85

My husband and I turned on the lights, tickled his belly and did everything we could to wake him up in time for school. This was a two parent mission this time. He moaned at my husband “Dad!!!! You just woke me up from an awesome dream!” and he placed his pillow over his head like a disgruntled teen and laid there like sprawled beagle. My husband slowly pulled his feet out from under the pillow and slid him down the bed, onto his wobbling feet.

“Ugh, I want to be homeschooled” He moaned.

This is literally that morning, and this was phase 2 when neither of the boys had energy to even put on their own socks! Gotta love back to school. Yes I need to vacuum….ugh

“I get it little guy” I thought.. Grade 1 is hard, life is hard and sometimes you’re just too tired to do it.

Just the week before, I had sat in church on one of my worst exhausted Christian days ever.

I sang all the songs that day, they were mostly about God. I lifted my hands –  sort of, and I kept my eye and heart on the time.

SIGH I just didn’t want to do God stuff that day, I just didn’t want to be churchy, I didn’t want to be the light, I wanted to go back to bed. I was tired. I wanted to be homeschooled, but my faithful husband dragged me out of bed with the lure of coffee.

I closed my eyes at church that day and sighed, I thought Jesus must be so irritated with me. I was to come to church with a good godly attitude and love every minute of it! Instead, it was my worst Christian day, and my internal attitude was embarrassing. As I closed my eyes, I saw a picture of Jesus, putting his arm around me and giggling. The same way I do when my kids have their arms folded, their head turned upward away from me, their lip protruding like The Trump, and a “I just don’t want to” attitude!

That day God and life was a burden.

God was not offended by my fatigue, or even my internal eye rolling, but He wasn’t going to leave me with my head under my pillow for long either. Over the last couple of weeks He has softly pulled on my feet and slid me across the bed onto my wobbling feet.

 

AN EXHAUSTED WARNING

I have learnt over the years, especially after my breakdown to really listen to my fatigue. To never ignore it or try to manage it. Fatigue, whether it is spiritual, physical, mental or all of the above is always a warning sign that our hose is about to kink. Listen to your tired, it’s trying to tell you something. That exhausted sigh is the whispering of your soul…trying to shelter your body, mind and  spirit from your striving.

 

THE PROCESS OF REVIVAL

A personal revival can be miraculous, but more often than not it is a process.  Getting to a place of exhaustion and weariness is often a combination of baggage, mindsets and misplaced priorities. In Psalm 85 David laments as he begs God to revive him, to renew his strength, to restore his energy and fill him again. Do you ever plea for that?

Come to think of it, it’s very similar to my summarized text message to my husband last week when I hosted 9 kids for a 6-year-old birthday party… “kill me now! (insert doomed emoticon face)”

Back in Psalm 85 David uses the phrase “revive me” over 10 times, but He didn’t just ask for God to revive Him, he knew how God would revive him and He spoke it. As I read through this long Psalm, there were 6 definite ways David asked God to restore him.

 

Psalm 85

Revive me according to Your Word.  – 25

Revive me in Your way. – 37

Revive me in Your righteousness – 40

Revive me in Your loving kindness – 88

Revive me according to Your justice – 149

Revive me according to Your judgments – 156

 

Am I the only one saying WOW here?! Can I get an Amen?! Or a comment or a Like on FaceBook, something really!

Here is what I have been walking through and learning…

Revive me according to Your Word.  – Psalm 85: 25

It’s usually our last stop, but it should be our first, and it’s no surprise that David had it listed first in his plea for revival. Reading the Word of God is God’s direct line to His refreshing and it is what opens the door for Him to be able to speak to us about the things in our life that need His presence and His touch.

Revive me in Your way– Psalm 85: 37

HIS ways are not MY ways. When I get fatigued and begin to feel like my light is going out in my heart, I often want to revive myself – My way. A date with my friends venting about life, or a big bowl of ice-cream in front of the TV. Often God can feel like another unchecked to-do box in our lives. However, in all of my years of trying, I have never successfully revived my spirit fully, only He can do that and it won’t always be Our Way. His Ways are perfect.

Revive me in Your righteousness  Psalm 85: 40

A huge proportion of our fatigue comes from our endless striving. Striving to be loved, liked, accepted, wealthy, free, more godly, less guilty, more sexy, less hairy, more or less we strive to find fulfillment and ‘earn’ our place. This endless pursuit of self, burns us out, leading to feelings of guilt, shame and unworthiness-  and this my friend,  is exhausting! We lean not on our own righteousness but on His. All God’s ways are perfect, because He is perfect. When God begins to lead us to restoration, He will remind us that we don’t have to do anything, we can leave our imperfections and pressures to God, because He is enough.

Revive me in Your loving kindness – 88

I wanted to move this one to the end of the six verses, out of line of what was in the Psalm. It seemed more fitting to end with God loves us! I didn’t want to end this with His judgments. However, as I cut and pasted it out, I felt God say “No, Sarah, it’s my lovingkindness that leads us to repentance”. As I pondered this order, I realized how powerful and true this is. God never leaves His love for the end of our redemption, restoration and healing. It’s always there. He isn’t going to bring us to justice or deal with our sin and then we get His love. It’s not who He is. It’s IN His loving kindness we are revived.

Revive me according to Your justice – 149

I do not believe the context here is for His justice towards us but rather His justice for us. There are situations in our lives that have happened to us. The enemy comes to rob and steal and destroy our lives. God brings justice for His people. He shows us the areas that the enemy has tried to take us out and fatigue is a huge weapon! God wants to bring justice into the areas of our lives where we have been caused to grieve and hide.

Revive me according to Your judgments – 156

God is just, he is judge, therefore he is a just Judge. Quickly say Just Judge 5Xs really fast!  Part of our fatigue and weariness is a need for God to remove sin in our life and false mindsets. He comes, with His lovingkindness to bring truth and expose the things in our life that are holding us back.


Final Reflection:

Last night I attended a worship service, and as I began to close my eyes and worship, I felt this physical weight lift off of me. I had been spending the last few weeks pressing into God’s Word, receiving instruction, letting go of my false guilt, accepting his righteousness, embracing His loving kindness and receiving his justice and judgment. As I continued to sing,  I then felt a mental heaviness lift off of me and my head cleared, then as if someone had flicked a switch I felt my spirit lift and I was overwhelemd with the joy of being at church and in the presence of God.  I didn’t recieve this refreshing because I earned it through my doing, I recieved it because God wanted me to. Just like He wants to refresh you too.

As we feel the tiny sparks beginning to reignite, we must continue to allow God’s breathe to reignite the flame again and again. This is How To Revive Our Spirits and Get Our Spark Back.

 

Resources:

I love this book, and Mark Buchanan. He’s an amazing man of God and former pastor who learnt the hard way, like so many of us do, on How to Find the Rest of God.

How is your tired today? 

 

 

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