One day recently I was trying to photograph my granddaughter while she was making cookies. Each time I told her to look at me and smile, she just kept on doing what she wanted to do and muttering the word ‘cheese.’

At that moment I wondered if this was how God sees us. He is trying to get us to focus on Him, but we just keep doing what we feel like and muttering some magic word.

We can never say a magic word that will make revival happen again in New England. We need to be looking at the Lord– studying His word, studying His nature, and leaving behind the former passions that once ensnared us.

Or think of the hope for revival this way:  When we boast that we have sailed a boat across the open sea, we ought to be humbly declaring that the wind blew it across for us. Still, it is important to point out that had we not set the sails and directed the boat, it would not have crossed the sea.

So it is with revival—we cannot move the boat ourselves, but God insists that we set the sail and steer the rudder. Today we must be about the business of setting sails.