You’d have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the revival that started at Asbury University last week and is still going strong. It’s an answer to a prayer so many have been praying for a long time now.
I woke up yesterday with this thought:
Hunger is an invitation.
Prayer is the portal.
Lingering is the key that unlocks the door for more.
This move at Asbury sparked from a regular ‘ole chapel service. You know, one where they sing a couple songs, listen to a message from a guest speaker or one of their professors, and then go on about their day encouraged from the worship and the Word. And last Wednesday was no different except for one little thing.
They lingered.
This is a quote from an article by Julie Roys:
“A regular chapel service that began Wednesday morning at the campus of about 1,600 students turned extraordinary when a group of students stayed behind in the university’s Hughes Auditorium to continue worshipping. The message that morning had focused on confession, repentance, and love in action, based on Romans 12.”
Julie Roys (you can read the entire article here)
Chapel started like usual. Chapel dismissed like usual. Many students left to go on about their day like usual, but a group of them who were hungry for more stayed behind to worship just a little bit longer. And that changed everything.
Hunger. Pray. Linger.
God stirs a hunger in a lot of Christians who are then feeding that hunger with things other than the presence of God. They turn to TV or food or alcohol or drugs or porn, but none of these things will ever satisfy the hunger God stirs in our hearts for Him. Hunger is an invitation from God to press in for more of Him.
One way to press in for more of God is prayer. Prayer at its essence means face-to-face, and worship is the highest form of face-to-face communion with God. Prayer is a portal, or an entryway, that takes you from one place to another. Worship brings you into direct contact with a living, loving heavenly Father.
Linger = to stay in a place longer than is necessary because of a reluctance to leave.
These students could have left Hughes auditorium like they do after every other chapel as soon as it dismissed to run to the next thing on their to-do list, but a small group of them didn’t. They lingered. They were reluctant to leave.
And because they decided to linger in the portal of prayer a little longer than was necessary, an entire campus full of students (not to mention all those who have come from far and wide) have encountered God in a fresh way and walked away forever changed.
Here’s the good news. You don’t have to travel to Wilmore, KY to experience the presence of God like this. Right where you are, you can respond to His invitation of hunger in your heart, press in through the portal of prayer, and linger there. He is longing to be known by you, and He will always satisfy our hungry hearts with more of Him.