Certain songs have become old standards in most revival meetings. The one I hear sung more than any other is the great hymn “Revive Us Again.” Just this week a friend told me that Harold Sightler would never have a revival meeting without singing “Come Thou Fount.” The truth is that any song that brings us into a spirit of prayer and lifts us to Christ is a good song for a revival meeting. There is something truly thrilling about hearing people lift their voices in enthusiastic, evangelistic singing.

Because I am in revival meetings week after week I often hear the same songs. My favorite hymn is Charles Wesley’s “And Can It Be?” (Read more about that here.) But my favorite revival hymn is one that searches my heart every time I hear it…

Charles Tindley was the son of a slave woman. His mother died when he was a young child and Charles had a difficult time in his youth. He went to Philadelphia to attend college and said he made it his goal to learn one new thing every day. While there he served for several years as a janitor in a downtown church. God would later make him the pastor of that same church.

God used Tindley as a preacher but he was also a prolific song writer, becoming one of the father’s of American gospel music. During a challenging time in his pastorate he was sitting in his study writing when a blast of wind came through the open window and scattered his notes on the ground. As he gathered them he thought, “Let nothing between.” In a few moments Charles had penned one of the most convicting revival hymns ever written.

Read through the text slowly and ask yourself if these words are true of your life:

Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Refrain:
Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
So that His blessed face may be seen;
Nothing preventing the least of His favor;
Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Nothing between, like worldly pleasure;
Habits of life, though harmless they seem,
Must not my heart from Him ever sever;
He is my all, there’s nothing between.

Nothing between, like pride or station;
Self or friends shall not intervene;
Though it may cost me much tribulation,
I am resolved, there’s nothing between.

Nothing between, e’en many hard trials,
Though the whole world against me convene;
Watching with prayer and much self-denial—
Triumph at last, there’s nothing between.

Revived people sing differently. Sin closes people up but God opens them up! When we get “in tune” with the Lord it comes out in our singing. I think we should do more singing after the preaching of God’s Word and seasons of prayer because then we are truly singing out of revived hearts. Some of the best singing I have ever heard in revival meetings was done at the end of the meeting. Awakened hearts cannot help but sing.

What is your favorite revival hymn?