Restoring

God is always in the process of restoring...if we could see into the spiritual realm, I think we would be amazed at all that He is doing in and around us.  But sometimes we can feel very discouraged for where we are at in life...often it is because we look back on mistakes we have made or the time we feel we have wasted and wish we had done things differently.  But do you know that those feelings can allow for God to move in one of my many favourite ways?  In His miraculous way - He can restore all of these things.  Oh, but I don't know what you have done?  I don't have to, I know what He can do.

In the book of Joel, God gives a wonderful promise, chapter 2 verse 25 says, "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten..."  What a beautiful picture!  When you look at your life, do you see places that feel like they have been devoured?  Times in your past that feel robbed of what could have been or what should have been?  That is okay - God is our restorer.  He can take those times, events and moments in our lives and restore them.  All it requires is our willingness to give them to God and leave them with Him. 

What does this look like?  It can have many different processes, but one of them is as simple as quiet time with God, telling Him about the times in your past that you feel have lacked His best.  Surrendering (which means giving over) those things to Him and asking Him to restore what the "locusts" have eaten.  One promise I have seen carried out in my own life and the lives of so many Christians around me, is that He makes beauty from ashes.  In the moments of pain or sorrow, we cannot possible see what He will be able to do - but He can see it all!  Just as a master craftsman can come into a rundown home and make something new and lovely, so much more so can God take the places in our life that are rundown and broken and create a masterpiece. 

Trust the Lord to do as He promises in Isaiah 61, "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor."  What promises - He takes away all of the ashes, mourning, despair and in place give us beauty, gladness, a garment of praise and allows us to display His splendor!  God is the true restorer and master craftsman - allow Him to move in new, deeper ways to restore what the locusts have taken from you!  He has something beautiful planned, my friend!