The Doctor: Revival Not Contingent Upon Me

If you work your way through the Old Testament, this is what you will find.  There were dead, lifeless periods when you would think that everything had come to an end – that God’s ways were forgotten.  How did these dead periods suddenly give way to something else?  Was it that people got together and organized something?  Never!  Not on a single occasion!  Invariably it happened like this: that when they were utterly hopeless, and downcast, and really thought the end had come, God suddenly, unexpectedly, and in the most amazing manner did something.  It is God who revives His work.  You and I tend to be anxious, over-anxious, about the work, don’t we?  Like that poor man Uzzah, we put out our hand to steady the ark, forgetting that he was struck dead for attempting to do so.  And there are many people today who seem to think that they must do something to safeguard God’s cause.  My dear friend, you need not trouble; God revives His work, but in His time, in His way, and with the person or persons whom He has chosen.  The Old Testament history is amazing in that respect.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Vol. 1, p.96