这几天我们在思想基督徒的一个倾向，就是从依靠神转为依靠自己，而这往往是灵性倒退的原因。没有甚么比看见自己的子民渴望自我掌控、依赖自我更令神感到厌恶，这不是因为全能的神自负的要掌控一切，而是因为祂知道，倘若我们企图以自己的方式生活，我们会贬低自己的身份，因而不能达成祂在我们身上的计划和美意。我们必须面对一个事实，那就是我们没有办法不倚靠神，因为只有神才是独立存在的。没有我们，祂仍然存在，但假如没有祂，我们就不能存在。

旧约时期的复兴，是出现在以色列人的集体敬拜生活达到高峰的时候。他们承认以自己的方式生活是不行的，只有在倚靠神的时候，才能得到生活的喜乐和果效。我们从今天的经文看到神怎样呼召祂的子民悔改，归向倚靠祂：「当归向耶和华，用言语祷告他。」这表示：「你们清楚明白为甚么而悔改。」

悔改是一块从自我掌控到归向倚靠神的踏脚石，除此以外没有别的方法。因此在所有复兴中，悔改是问题的核心；在复兴中，神强烈地向我们显明一个真理──惟有透过悔改，才能通向与祂建立持久关系的道路。大家要谨记，归向神是一切改变的关键，所有的转变都必须包含核心的改变──远离自我掌控，归向倚靠永活的神。

Nothing is more abhorrent to God than to see within His people the desire for self-control and self-dependence. This is not because of any egotism in the Almighty that requires Him to be the boss, but because He knows that when we try to run our lives on our own terms we demean ourselves and fall short of His plans and purposes for us. We must face the fact that we are helplessly dependent and that God and God alone is independent. He can exist without us but we cannot exist without Him.

The periods of revival in the Old Testament came at the high peaks of corporate worship in the life of Israel, when the people acknowledged the fact that they could not successfully run their lives on their own terms but were happy and effective only to the degree that they were dependent upon God. In the chapter before us today we see how God called His people back to dependence upon Him by encouraging them to repent: "Take words with you, and return to the Lord." This means (so I believe): "Have a clear idea of what you are repenting of."

The stepping stone from independence to dependence is always repentance. There is simply no other way that it can be done. That is why in all revivals the issue of repentance becomes paramount. In revival God underlines in a dramatic way the truth that the path to a continuous relationship with Him is through repentance. Never forget this. The key to all change is in a returning to God, for every effort to change must invoke at its core a shift in direction - away from dependence on one's own resources to dependence on the living God.