I Want God: How to Love Him With Your Whole Heart and Revive Your SoulSample

Day 1: Travels of the Few

Where there is change, there will first be a denial of something that hasn’t worked and a newfound focus and effort on something that will. And where there is such effort, few will be found.

This thought doesn’t come from me, for I would hope for a broader opening, a wider road, guaranteeing a shot to more travelers. But I read Isaiah, which tells of the travels of the few willing, gutsy ones. They follow God and will one day enjoy peace and goodness in places that were dark.

Though this passage is about the time when the earth as we know it will be no more, it makes me think about the road we can still walk to being spiritually revived and transformed, likened to God today.

“A great road will go through that once deserted land. It will be named the Highway of Holiness.… It will be only for those who walk in God’s ways.… Only the redeemed will walk on it” (Isaiah 35:8–9).

I can try to make God smaller, but it will not change His greatness. I can paint the road to my soul’s revival smoother, but it will not change the fact that it will likely have potholes and rocks. Wanting God is wanting more than what I can know, see, feel, or understand. It is being willing to travel the present-day Highway of Holiness, which is sure to be narrow and winding and complicated and messy.

Most of us bail when the revival fires nip closer to our heels and the prayers for 'whatever it takes' are taken seriously. We have given only half our hearts, and we are scared. But those who choose it will see the impossible become what only God can make possible.

Deserts will grow flowers. Bad knees will become well. Blind eyes will see. Broken bodies will leap like deer. Water will spring up in dry places. (Isaiah 35:1–7)

These are promises for everyday people who want God more than anything else and are willing to let Him bust up their ordinary lives for glimpses of the radical.

Travels of the few.

Reflect:

Am I willing to embrace the challenging path of spiritual revival, accepting its complexities, and trusting God's promises for transformation?

Prayer:

God, please deepen my desire to travel this road of the few, to want You above all else, to see more of Your beauty, grace, healing, and revival. Amen.