The Restoration.

While I have spent these last few months thinking about christian faith in older friends and people, one recurring thought that kept coming up over and over again. I was remembering all the other people and occasions that I had been involved with over the years.

There have been so many friendships that I moved through, and so many christian events that I attended. And I sit and ponder now about how God has worked through those other people’s lives and built His own  relationship with them also.

Many have gone on and grown into deeper, more meaningful relationships with Christ. Others are still moving in the same social circles that they moved on many years ago. And that is all good stuff because it is God who works through us all to build His relationship with each and every one of us individually.

By coincidence I came across a little podcast lately where the speaker was speaking on the Old Testament book of Joel. It’s not a book that I have studied deeply at any time and if I’d read it I’m sure it was just a glance through it without thinking of the setting or context of the book.

Although the book is located near the end of the Old Testament it is actually set in the time period of King David’s reign. And although the book is only three chapters lo,ng as I read through it I felt that is was about thirty chapters long. It was God bringing woes, and famines, and drought, and wars and it was starting to get me down. Then in the second half of the book it was all about God making everything ok for Israel again.

But the person reading the podcast came to a little verse right in the very middle of the book which caught my attention. It was this…

Joel Ch2 (25)And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm,….

Restore our years? At first reading you would nearly think that we were all going to be made youthful again. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So, I started to read more into it.

It seems to be that God meant that He would allow us to see how His works can carry on through other people as he carries on working through us. We might not be involved in those times past anymore. But isn’t it great to meet up with old church friends and colleagues and see that they are still working for God?

God never leaves the work in our lives unfinished. We are still being moulded and matured in Him. The prophet Isaiah talked about the times that Israel had fallen by the wayside by going after false idols. But God never forgot them. He put them into a position where they were to repent, tear down the idols and rebuild their relationship with him.

Then, He would bless them…

Isaiah Ch57 (18)I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.

David failed God so many times. His pride and his lust all got in the way of his relastionship with God. But God loved David still. And He wasn’t going to allow David to stay downhearted. Listen to David’s prayer as he started to wish for God’s blessings again…

Psalm 51 (10) Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (11) Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 

God wants for us all to come to Him. But He also knows that we will always let him down. That is why He continually allows us to repent and be restored. His mercy and His grace is immense.

So, nurture these little moments of tenderness with God. Seek out those little moments of praise and joy when your thoughts turn to Him. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us.

And He’s a man of His word.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way.
When sorrows, like sea billows, roll.
Whatever my lot. You have taught me to say -
It is well. It is well with my soul.
 
Email - TheseLivelyOracles@hotmail.com
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