A Fire for Our Generation!

“If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9, ESV).

Jeremiah prophesied to a terror-stricken nation. The cry in Israel was “Fear on every side!” (see Jeremiah 6:25, 20:10, 49:29). While people were gripped with terror, the prophet was grieved and troubled by what he saw happening in the land. Immorality was rampant, and God’s people were in a horrible spiritual decline.  

If Jeremiah were alive in America today, I believe he would see the same thing happening in our land. He would tell us that we’re facing just what his generation faced: a moral collapse, a tidal wave of unprecedented sexual perversion and a society rapidly rejecting God. 

There is something even more troubling than this. Tragically, Christ’s church has been ineffective in turning the tide. God’s people are too prayerless and thus powerless at the very moment we should be calling on God with effective fervency. We’ve grown spiritually anemic, distracted by entertainment and a pursuit of fleshly cravings. 

A famous quote, attributed to either C. H. Spurgeon or Archibald Brown, prophesied all of this more than a century ago: “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” That time is now. The hour has come for repentance of the heart, revival in the church and a spiritual awakening in our nation.   

Oh, that God would give us Jeremiah’s fire for our generation! Oh, that men and women of God would regain their zeal for the supremacy of Jesus Christ. Oh, that leaders would return to preaching the uncompromising Word of God and calling for repentance, holiness and passion for him.  

It is time to pray. It is time for each of us to appeal to heaven for a revival in the church and an awakening in the nation. Jeremiah says it is God’s Word to us to trust and believe him to move on a generation. I implore you to begin praying now for all pastors and church leaders to be faithful, on-fire messengers of his Word for the sake of our nation.