A Revival of the Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 5

When we’re exhausted – so tired we can’t go on, turns out that what we need to do is to stop and revive, in order to survive. We need revival deep in our hearts.  And as things turn out – well, that’s God’s plan too. To revive an aching heart, and a failing spirit.

One of the things that happens just about everywhere on the planet I suspect is on those special holidays, those long weekends, school holidays, whatever, many people hop in their cars and head off for a break. Sometimes they drive long distances. I mean, here in Australia it’s a big country and it’s nothing for people to drive 11 or 12 or 13 hours straight to arrive at a holiday destination.

And of course, the longer you drive the more you become tired and the more your mind wanders and you lose concentration. And so tiredness combined with the fact there are many more people on the roads, leads to a spike in road accidents and fatalities.

In the state where I live, a few years ago, the police or the road authority or whoever it was, came up with a catchy slogan and it goes like this. “Stop. Revive. Survive.” It’s not bad and it’s true. Sometimes we have to stop and revive in order to survive. And you know, it’s like that in life sometimes too.

Have you ever been exhausted to the core? You know, so dog tired that you feel as though that you can’t possibly go on. There are a lot of reasons that can happen but happen it does and when it does we need something or someone to revive us. Fortunately, God has a plan.

We’ve been talking this week on the program about our hearts. You know that place deep down inside where we live. That place where we experience joy and pain. Peace and turmoil. Deep down in our hearts. And in this world, time and time again, you see people who are so exhausted, so wrung out.

Interesting, I was listening to a social commentator being interviewed on the radio just the other day. And he was making the point that we’re in a phase, in western society at least, where it’s all about perfection. The perfect latte. The perfect holiday. The perfect meal. The perfect education for our children. This striving for perfection all the time is making people tired. It’s exhausting.

Because when you go to the coffee shop and the coffee isn’t quite perfect and the service isn’t quite perfect people are starting to get all stressed as though somehow their lives were meant to be perfect. And they were never meant to be perfect.

That started me thinking and I thought about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that actually sin is exhausting. You know, selfishness and pride and anger. Whatever it is in our lives, all those things take so much energy.

I mean rebelling against God is just plain hard work. Because when we do that we’re living in a manner that we weren’t designed to live in. We’re pulling in the opposite direction to God and we know that it just doesn’t work. It’s exhausting. You start feeling like you’re carrying around these incredible loads and burdens.

As I look back on my life, I used to be so concerned about my image. What people thought about me. I was always trying to impress people. Like you’re living life for show. Always in the limelight. I was addicted to that stuff. It was just plain exhausting.

It was like living in a display home all the time. You know when you’re selling the house, you always keep it perfectly neat and tidy just in case the agent brings some prospective buyer around at a moments notice. You never relax. You never enjoy. You’re always on edge.

Listen to me! Millions of people are living their lives like that and it’s not the way it’s meant to be. Some people out there, well you need to stop and revive in order to survive.

Have a listen to this. It comes from God. It comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Have a listen, it’s great stuff. Isaiah chapter 57, verses 15 to 21:

For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. He says, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.

For I will not continuously accuse nor will I always be angry for then the spirits would grow faint before me, even the souls that I have made. Because of their wicked covetness I was angry. I struck them, I hid, I was angry but they kept turning back to their own ways. I have seen their ways but I will heal them. I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips.

‘Peace, peace to the far and near’, says the Lord, ‘I will heal them. But the wicked, they are like the tossing sea. They cannot keep still. It’s waters toss up mire and mud. There is no peace,’ Says my God, for the wicked.’

See the story playing itself out here? God wants to revive our spirit. He wants to revive our hearts. Now I’m sure you know this but this was written originally in the Hebrew language. So this word “revive”, well I went back to see what it originally meant before it was translated into the English.

Here’s what the dictionary definition for the original word is. “To live. Have life. Remain alive. Sustain life. Live prosperously. Live forever. Be quickened. Be alive. Be restored to life or health.”

“Wow, give me some of that”, says the one who’s exhausted. But we have to read the rest of what God’s saying here through the prophet Isaiah. See it talks about God’s anger towards the wicked and then it talks about His mercy and grace. Let’s have a look at it again, Isaiah 57, verses 18 and 19:

I have seen their ways but I will heal them. I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the Lord, and I will heal them.

See this promised revival of the heart and the spirit is not for everyone. God says:

I dwell in the high and holy place.

And also:

With those who are contrite and humble in spirit. In order to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite.

This peace, this revival, this rest is for the humble and the contrite. But those who continue rebelling against God, this is what they should expect:

The wicked are like the tossing sea. They cannot keep still. It’s waters toss up the mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.

God is saying something here. He wants to heal our hearts. He wants to revive the heart. Revive the spirit. But He’s giving us the choice and the choice is ours. It’s yours and it’s mine. If we set our hearts on living the life that God always intended.

If we bow our lives down before Him. If we humble ourselves. If we come to Him with contrition. If we decide to live a life that’s close to Him and in Him, a life that honours Him as our God. If we turn from the sin. Let me call it exactly what it is, sin, that’s like a heavy weight on our shoulders, here’s what to expect from God. Revival of the spirit and revival of the heart.

But if we don’t humble ourselves before God. If we don’t turn back to Him, then expect this. There is no peace or no rest for the wicked. They are God’s words and not mine. Let me come back to it.

If you are someone whose heart is to honour God and to serve Him, I want to encourage you to take God at His word today. Expect Him to revive your heart. Expect Him to give you peace and rest on every side including on the inside. Because actually, that’s exactly what God wants to do for you and for me and anyone else who is humble and contrite, bowing their lives down to God.

It’s that simple, really.