What price would you put on your children?  Priceless? Dare I say, worthless?  Surely they are of at least some value.  When listening to our culture, one hears a mixed bag of responses to this question.

I heard just last week about two young boys in the Memphis area who were found in a neighbor's front yard a block away from their house.  Being so young, they were lost, whimpering, and unable to direct themselves home.  Upon calling the police, a search ensued for the appropriate home which was ended an hour and a half later as police returned the young, cold, underdressed boys to their mother who showed no signs of having cared about their missing status.  She simply opened the door, allowed the boys to enter, and closed it as quickly as it opened.  No "thank you..." no "I was so worried..."  Nothing.

An article by John Cloud on Time Magazine’s Healthland website states many disconcerting thoughts.  Here are a few examples:

• “Some economists have argued that having kids is an economically silly investment; after all, it’s cheaper to hire end-of-life care than to raise a child.  Now comes new research showing that having kids is not only financially foolish but that kids literally make parents delusional.”
• “Couples who choose not to have kids also have better, more satisfying marriages than couples who have kids.”
• Richard Eibach and Steven Mock recently conducted research to test the “hypothesis that ‘idealizing the emotional rewards of parenting helps parents to rationalize the financial costs of raising children’.”
• Parents “idealize parenting” for “the same reason you keep spending money to fix up an old car when it just doesn’t work…”
• Researchers have now created “a new cultural model of childhood that [one researcher] aptly dubbed ‘the economically worthless but emotionally priceless child’.”

The conclusion is that children truly have no intrinsic value; parents simply persuade themselves that children have worth because they want an emotional connection, but they are foolish in that persuasion, because children actually bring less satisfaction than anticipated.

Ultimately, this article points readers in a completely selfish trajectory, attempting to point out that children bring too much of a burden to justify the expectation of profit.

In our last post we sought to give a definition of revival and named one of the blessings that come as a result of it. In this post we want to again examine Isaiah 64 and note some of the other blessings Isaiah listed. Meditating on these things will help to develop in us a genuine hunger for God to move mightily on our behalf in the church today.

B. The Name of God is Exalted

Isaiah prayed for a manifestation of the awesome presence of God in order “to make Your name known to Your adversaries” (64:2).  We should desire for revival to take place because we want to make His name known. We want to exalt the name of God. Sometimes we do not experience revival because we are more concerned about making our name known, or our church name known, than making God’s name known. Ask yourself this question; “If you could pray and start a revival and never get the credit for it would I still be willing to see revival come?” Are you more concerned with God getting the glory or you getting the credit? Our motives must be right if we would see a mighty work of God. We must be consumed with the passion of seeing God’s name exalted and made known to a lost and dying world. We must be focused on His glory! This is a principle in Scripture that is often overlooked. Scriptures teaches that if we focus on God’s glory the Spirit of God begins to work on our behalf.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” As we focus on the glory of God the Spirit in return lifts us to new levels of glory. The prayer of Isaiah reveals that God’s name and glory was his focus. When we also lift our voices to God praying for His glory to be revealed then I believe God will answer and bring revival.

Have you ever asked God to bless you, your family, your ventures: be it a relationship, education, work, or any sort of decision you may have to make day to day?  If you have, you are not alone.  Nearly every Christian seeks to be blessed and we all need God’s blessing daily.  But have you ever thought about why you seek God’s blessing?  Is it for personal comfort, gain, success, and fulfillment or are you seeking the blessing of God for a bigger purpose - for His purpose?