“If there is plenty of room to go back, there is plenty of need to go forward.” -Evan Roberts, instrumental in the Welsh Revival
This quote really speaks to me because I think the whole world is built around the idea that we should go back to “the good old days”. But there is no life there. When you hear somebody talking about the past all the time, whether that person be young or old, it only means that they have stopped going forward. The moment we stop going forward we die.
I love men of God like John Wesley, who lived their life full tilt until the very end! You read Wesley’s journals and you see a man in his later years who is every bit the blazing fire that he was when he first started out.
“For above eighty-six years, I found none of the infirmities of old age: my eyes did not wax dim, neither was my natural strength abated. But last August, I found almost a sudden change. My eyes were so dim that no glasses would help me. My strength likewise now quite forsook me and probably will not return in this world.”
Wesley recorded remarkable strength and vitality right through his 86th year! He died at 87. His journal records him doing exploits for God in the later years of his life that many of us would have trouble doing when we were 20 years old!!
For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall. -Psalms 18:29
It was said of Moses that he had excellent eyesight and his strength was not at all diminished even though he was 120 years old!
Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished. -Deuteronomy 34:7
Caleb at the age of 85 said that he had the strength of a 45-year-old! These men were not of the character that they wanted to sit back in their easy chair and watch as life passed them by.
Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old, still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in. -Joshua 14:10-11
Evan Robert’s statement was made at the twilight of his life when people wanted to hold “anniversary meetings” marking the Welsh Revival. They had invited him to be part of this “blast from the past” because of his key role in the Welsh Revival. He wanted to have nothing to do with it.
“If there is plenty of room to go back”, he said, “there is plenty of need to go forward.”
What a prophetic statement!
These people didn’t need to live in the nostalgia of a revival that once was. They were actually in desperate need of being revived themselves! Oh God, thank you that the former glory of Your house cannot be compared with the glory that will be!
The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the LORD of Hosts. And in this place I will provide peace, declares the LORD of Hosts.” -Haggai 2:9
Evan Roberts went on to say-
“The things of earth grow less and less and so does the Earth itself until there comes The Eternal fully in to take its place. That should be your prayer as churches- for the Fullness to come.”
Oh for a vision that goes straight to the eternity of God! Oh that we would be people, who, like the Apostle John, are given eyes to see, and ears to hear- that which is before us and lasts forever.
Evan Roberts was used by God in one of the greatest revivals that the world has ever known, and yet, he had eyes to see past the temporary glory of revival, to a time when Jesus would return for His church and there would be no further need for “outpourings” because we would be with the Lord Jesus forever!
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! -Revelation 22:20