Restoration

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard Him and saved Him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.  Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!  Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear Him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

~Psalm 34:1-10

King David wrote most of the Psalms. He was a man with problems, but he was also a man with great faith and love for the Lord. It’s true that most of his problems were brought on by his own fleshly desires and failure to obey the word of God, but David was also teachable. No matter what he went through, David was able to see the Lord’s hand in every aspect of his life. Even when David was pursued by his enemies, lost children, or committed sins that grieved God’s heart, he never failed to acknowledge is wrongs and confess his sins to God. David had a contrite spirit and knew that God would answer and forgive him. That doesn’t mean God didn’t allow David to suffer the consequences of his actions, but God never abandoned him.

How many times in life have we grieved the heart of God, but instead of confessing that sin, we kept going in the wrong direction? That is one ploy the devil uses to lure us further from God. If we begin to think that our sins are too great, or that we’ve sinned too often, or that God must be getting tired of hearing our excuses, then the devil has us right where he wants us. And the further we get from God, the closer we get to hell.

Paul called himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15), and Isaiah said, “woe is me, I have unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). David cried out, “I have sinned against you” (Psalm 51:4), and the tax collector said, “I am a sinner” (Luke 18:13). In every case in the Bible where someone admitted their sin, God forgave and restored them to a point better than they were prior to sinning. That’s because once we admit our sin and ask forgiveness, God doesn’t remember that we sinned (Isaiah 43:25). We are brand new, like a newborn baby, before Him. We are innocent in His eyes and forgiven of everything we have done.

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago (Acts 3:19-21).”

God is the God of restoration, making all things new again. He restores our souls (Psalm 23) and gives us new life. Throughout the gospels, (Matthew 9:2-8; Mark 7: 31-37; Mark 8:22-26; Luke 5:12-25), we see the evidence of God’s restorative powers in the lives of those Jesus touched. What Jesus did then, He continues to do now. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8) and will never leave us. The work Jesus was sent to do on the Cross works within us today. His blood covers our sin and brings us to repentance before God. No matter what our particular brand of sin, it is not so big that Christ can’t or won’t forgive when we ask.

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’ (Isaiah 57:15).”

Read Job 11-13

© 2018 Marie McGaha