The power of predictions and the urgency of revival

Warren Buffett is retiring at the end of the year. This is the headline news from his company’s annual shareholders meeting Saturday, but there’s more to know.

According to Forbes, Buffett is worth $168.2 billion. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, ended March 2025 with $347.7 billion on hand. Over the last year, his company’s stock rose 33.9 percent, compared with 12.3 percent for the S&P 500. All that to say, when Buffett discusses the economy, people listen.

Tens of thousands of them, in fact.

At Saturday’s annual meeting in Omaha, people came from around the world to hear the ninety-four-year-old investment guru. He stated that “balanced trade is good for the world” and that “trade should not be a weapon,” but he also urged patience to investors worried about the future. “People have emotions,” Buffett said. “You’ve got to check them at the door when you invest.”

Nothing happening today has changed his long-term optimism about the US. He observed that “we’re always in the process of change” and added, “If I were being born today, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until they said, ‘You could be in the United States.’”

Following this story over the weekend prompted me to reflect on the power predictions have to become reality and the significance of this power for our souls and society.

Why yesterday was Star Wars Day

In case you missed it, Sunday was Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth be with you”), bringing us a host of quotes from the iconic film series. One of the most memorable comes from Return of the Jedi, when Obi-Wan Kenobi famously told Luke Skywalker, “Many of the truths that we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.”

While I disagree strongly with the underlying postmodern claim that there are no absolute truths (which is an absolute truth claim, by the way), Obi-Wan was right: when we act on our perceptions, we thus turn them into reality.

For example, when an investor like Warren Buffett encourages us to have faith in America and we therefore continue to invest in the country, our economy improves and our belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, it helps when the object of our faith is worthy of it. You can sincerely take the wrong road and become lost, or take the wrong medicine and die.

Churches so full they turned people away

Consider Gen Z (adults ages eighteen to twenty-seven), in many ways the future of our society. Many have sincerely placed their faith in secularism, which contributes to their lack of flourishing today. A new study found, as the New York Times reports, that young adults are struggling “not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships, and their financial security.”

However, in response to the loneliness epidemic and a loss of trust in the establishment, large numbers of young adults—and young men in particular—are turning to the Savior rather than secularism. In the UK, the number of young men attending church services has increased fivefold, and fourfold for young women. Gen Z adults are the most likely group to report an increase in Bible reading.

This trend is continuing across all demographics. Many churches in Great Britain were so full on Easter Sunday that they had to turn people away. Seventeen thousand people were baptized in France over the Easter weekend.

Once again, we are learning to pray with St. Augustine, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

“You have been set free from sin”

The key to experiencing genuine revival in our souls and our society is making the right spiritual decisions that become reality when we choose them.

In Romans 6, Paul taught that “the death [Jesus] died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (v. 10). Consequently, “you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 11). Consider translates a Greek word meaning to “appraise, reckon, believe to be true.”

When we make this determination that we are “dead to sin,” we are empowered to make these choices as well:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace (vv. 12–14).

We can choose godliness over sin because “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God” (v. 22a). You have been set free describes a completed action. The consequence of this fact “leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (v. 22b).

As St. Augustine observed, because of the Fall we were non posse non peccare, “not able not to sin.” But because of the transforming grace of Christ, we are now posse non peccare, “able not to sin.” The choice is ours.

If we believe Satan’s lie that we are sinners doomed to sin, we make his deception our reality. If we believe God’s assurance that we are “dead to sin” and can choose godliness with the help of God, we make his promise our reality.

There is no sin we must commit. To the contrary, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Paul testified, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). You have the opportunity and ability to choose the same reality today.

“The only reason we don’t have revival”

Imagine the impact on our souls if each of America’s Christians chose to see ourselves as “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and lived with true godliness by the help of God. Imagine the impact on our broken society. Imagine the revival that would come to our families, churches, and culture.

You can choose this reality for yourself today.

Leonard Ravenhill observed,

“The only reason we don’t have revival is because we are willing to live without it!”

Are you?

Quote for the day:

“Revival will come to us and within us when we really want it, when we pay the price.” —A. W. Tozer

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What the contrast says about our nation and our souls

Thousands of people took to the streets across America yesterday in May Day protests against the Trump administration. The protests were organized under the banner of the 50501 movement, which stands for “fifty protests, fifty states, one movement,” which seeks to “uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach.” More than a thousand protests were organized in cities and towns across the country.

Like the US, Israel has seen large anti-government protests in recent years—first against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms and then to demand the release of all remaining hostages in Gaza. This past March, more than one hundred thousand people turned out at such protests.

But there is a key difference between the two nations, one that reveals a principle vital to our future and the flourishing of our souls.

“Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance”

Columnist David Brooks, a longtime critic of Donald Trump, wrote a recent New York Times article surprisingly titled, “Trump’s Single Stroke of Brilliance.” His column is as critical of the president as we would expect. However, Brooks credits the administration for its energy: “It is flooding the zone, firing on all cylinders, moving rapidly on all fronts at once. It is operating at a tremendous tempo, taking the initiative in one sphere after another.”

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In his view, those opposed to Mr. Trump need to match his “clarity of purpose” with a “one-sentence mission statement” and a clear strategy for implementing it.

By contrast, historian Gil Troy writes in Jewish News Service that by the start of their May 1 Independence Day, “Israelis will have been bonding culturally, patriotically, and existentially for eighteen intense days already.” I have been in Israel on this day many times over the years. It is deeply moving to see Israeli flags decorating the nation’s balconies and cars. Families gather at beaches, parks, and other spots for picnics, concerts, and parades celebrating the nation, its history, and its future.

Troy notes that 96 percent of Israeli Jews participated in the Passover seder on April 12; some 71 percent avoided bread throughout Passover week. On April 24, the country stood in place for two minutes at 10 a.m. as sirens sounded for Yom Hashoah—Holocaust Remembrance Day—memorializing six million Jews murdered by the Nazis. Then came Wednesday’s Memorial Day, when Israelis honored their war dead and terrorism victims.

On these memorial days, as Troy notes, “regular television programming stops. Cafes, restaurants, theaters, and sports arenas close. Millions light memorial candles.”

Troy reminds us that these annual observances reflect biblical rhythms and are intended “to consecrate, to commemorate, to connect.” They “personalized, popularized, and democratized—and thereby immortalized—ideas, values, and historical events.”

Everything Israelis observed across these weeks centered on their national mission: “to live as a free people in our homeland, the land of Zion.”

What is our national mission?

If you ask five Americans to define our national mission and strategy for fulfilling it, how many answers do you think you’d hear?

What would be your answer to the question?

For America’s Founders, our mission is to advance the “self-evident” truth “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Our strategy fulfills this mission: “To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government.”

Like Israel’s recent memorials and celebrations, America’s founding mission and strategy are derived from biblical principles. Our mission protects and promotes the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness “endowed by [our] Creator.” Our strategy creates a government by consent of the governed, reflecting the sanctity of all life as created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27).

In both cases, the Founders were adamant that our flourishing depends on the blessing and providence of our Lord. For example, as Dr. Ryan Denison noted in his Daily Article yesterday, the National Day of Prayer observed by many across the country has its antecedents in a congressional appeal in 1775 for the colonies to join in “a Day of public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” for God’s blessing on their revolution for independence.

The modern state of Israel has not lost sight of its founding mission and strategy across its seventy-seven years of existence.

As America approaches our 250^th anniversary, have we?

How to find “rest for your souls”

America’s Founders could conceive of such a biblical mission and strategy because America’s first “Great Awakening” unified the colonies, elevated the humanity of all people (including African slaves), and inspired Americans to deep repentance and personal godliness.

How can you and I experience and catalyze such an awakening for the sake of our nation and our souls?

In Matthew 11, Jesus invites us,

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (vv. 28–30).

In Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did, pastor and author John Mark Comer notes that the “yoke” was a Hebrew idiom used by a rabbi for “his set of teachings, his way of reading Scripture, his take on how to thrive as a human being in God’s good world.” To “take my yoke upon you” means to live holistically by Jesus’ teaching as our life mission. To “learn” from him is the strategy by which we fulfill this mission as we seek his guidance in every dimension of our lives.

When we do this, we discover that our Lord is “gentle and lowly in heart,” meaning that he is kind and humble, wanting only our best in every dimension of our lives. The more we live by his word and will, the more we find “rest for [our] souls,” a peace that transcends all circumstances. This is because Jesus’ yoke is “easy,” a word meaning to be useful and best for us, while the “burden” or work he intends for us is “easy to bear” in his power and purpose.

So I’ll close by asking:

• When last did you consciously and intentionally choose Jesus’ “yoke” and no other?
• When last did you determine to live by his word and will alone?
• When last did you seek his help in wearing his yoke and bearing his burden?
• When last did you find “rest for your soul”?

Why not today?

Quote for the day:

“The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

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