Restored: once sick and wounded

For I will restore health to you,

and your wounds I will heal,

declares the LORD,

Jeremiah 30:17a

I was sick.

I was helplessly afflicted by my sin.

I had no way to enter in

to the presence of a holy God.

But Jesus made the cure.

He brought me in.

My soul now secure

and my disease now purged

I am pure by the power of His blood!

I was wounded.

I was hopelessly bound in my grief.

I held to hope, sought relief

in the power of my God.

Jesus brought me joy!

He carried my sorrows.

My soul consoled

and my losses all swallowed up in

a gracious new life

by the power of His resurrection!

I sought. He saved.

I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Jeremiah 29:14

There is a lot concerning Israel being promised in this verse. I am careful to note that the restoration referred to here in this prophecy has a multi-faceted way to be understood. There is a sense to the original audience, a sense to a bigger future plan for Israel, and also a principle that helps me analyze my own experiences.

First, to Jeremiah’s original audience there is hope after judgement upon their disastrous idolatry and sinful rejection of God. Yes, a nation would be exiled to Babylon for 70 years after a horrific siege of Jerusalem. But God assures them He would lead them back after that experience. And they would once again seek Him. He would restore them.

Secondly, the clear broader language that speaks about exiles scattered “to all the places I have driven you” indicates that a second, yet-to-be-realized restoration that affects a worldwide Diaspora of Jews is yet to come. There is a global return to God among professing Jews… a trust in Him that will compel them to return to the physical land of Israel. That is happening and yet to be completed.

Finally, a principle to help me understand my circumstances: In my awareness of needing God I will “find Him”. But it is actually God who does so much more than I do in pursuing Him. He pursues me! God restores. God re-gathers. God brings me back to peace and safety. I must submit, but God does the saving. I must seek, but God does the transforming of my heart and my life. It is all God’s work for His glory! He restores my soul! He gets the credit! God deserves the praise!

restoration for a weary prophet

Therefore thus says the LORD:

“If you return, I will restore you,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall be as my mouth.

They shall turn to you,

but you shall not turn to them.”

Jeremiah 15:19

God promises to use His disillusioned and dejected prophet. Jeremiah faced opposition to the Word of God that he had faithfully preached. He lamented this to God, wishing he had never been born (Jeremiah 15:10). This is what we would call depression, by the way. He prayed for God to act on his behalf (Jeremiah 15:15). He readily and joyfully embraced the words of prophecy that God gave him to speak (Jeremiah 15:16). He separated himself from the evil that God was going to eventually judge (Jeremiah 15:17). And yet the persecution against him increased and for Jeremiah God felt absent… life felt dry (Jeremiah 15:18). Why did his obedience lead to such pain and increased hatred? It didn’t make sense.

God spoke four promises to His weary prophet that restored him back to ministry power and purpose:

1.  “I will restore if you return.” Jeremiah needed to just trust God again. God would do the rest.

2.  “You shall stand before me.” God would be the audience Jeremiah sought to please. God would the prophet’s support.

3.  “You shall be my mouth.” God would speak, not Jeremiah, words of precious truth to combat the worthless way the prophet currently felt. So God would be ultimately responsible for the results since these were HIS words.

4. “They shall turn to you.” The prophet would be heard as his focus was on God, not the people.

And so, when our eyes are not myopically self-centered in our personal experience, when our hopes are not dependent upon the response of other people, when our worth is measured by the God Who made us to serve Him, we can trust that a God with a much bigger periphery than our own will use us… even if we feel worthless… even if our lives seem dry. It isn’t about us! It is all about the God Who renews, saves, and restores for His glory!

5 restoring promises

I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;

I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners.

Isaiah 57:18

It is important to know just who the “I” and the “him” are in this verse. The “I” is God. He describes Himself as “the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy” in Isaiah 57:15. The “him” in this verse is the person who is repentant, also described in Isaiah 57:15 as “him who is of contrite and lowly spirit”. God loves to restore those broken in their sin and sadness who are ready to confess and forsake sin!

I see that there are five unique promises that the Lord makes to whose who humbly come to Him in repentance with broken hearts. These promises bring encouragement especially as we experience them in full measure through the gospel today!

• God promises that He sees us. No repentance goes unknown. God sees and responds.
• God promises to heal us. Sin damages, diseases, and destroys. God’s mercy and grace bring us back to spiritual and emotional health.
• God promises to lead us. A new direction from God’s Word and His Holy Spirit guides the repentant heart.
• God promises to comfort us. Sin and the circumstances of our sinfulness and loss in a broken world will grieve us and break us down. God comforts us.
• God promises to comfort those who hurt with us. This is the unexpected aspect of His mercy. God promises to bring His healing perspective to those who grieve with us, to comfort all who mourn, to restore all who hurt and who need healing. He brings true hope again! Amen!

Make me live.

O Lord, by these things men live,

and in all these is the life of my spirit.

Oh restore me to health and make me live!

Behold, it was for my welfare

that I had great bitterness;

but in love you have delivered my life

from the pit of destruction,

for you have cast all my sins

behind your back.

Isaiah 38:16-17

The Lord has purposes for our good, even in our most profoundly painful experiences. And what tastes most bitter in our tears is turned sweeter than honey by Christ’s saving grace. God always has the welfare of His beloved in mind, even in our most difficult losses. And He can and will restore in love, delivering us from the worst we know in life’s downturns AND the worst things we do in our sin.

I have been in a season of fervent prayer, begging for deliverance that would lead me to know a comforting level of peace and security that I lost when death robbed me of a the best part of my daily life. My emotional, physical, and spiritual health shattered. But I can rejoice today for God has moved and made me live again! I see now that an intense season of suffering was used to trim me down, build me up, help me trust in real ways I never would have done, taught me to relate and to feel life anew, and through it all God has loved me well and led me to love well. And in a “needle in a haystack” sort of way, God has answered my prayers for restoration. Most importantly, God has shown me how much I should appreciate my true deliverance… not just from grief… but from the finality of the grave.

God, You have cast all my sins behind Your back and I am new in Christ! Jesus, You bore my sorrows so that I never sorrowed alone. And as my welfare has been restored, I rejoice! You wisely led me to thrive even as I felt dry and dying at times. That was a feeling but Your deliverance was the fact all along. You make me live! Hallelujah! Amen.

two pictures of restoration

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,

like streams in the Negeb!

Those who sow in tears

shall reap with shouts of joy!

Psalm 126:4-5

God restores with a clear new difference that changes everything. The two poetic images that stand out in these two verses remind us that God brings dramatic change when we are broken and hurting… if we will patiently endure.

The first image evokes needed refreshment and renewal. New streams flow through a desert landscape. Cool flowing waters in the wasteland are a precious, life-giving supply. God, in restoring us, is that pleasant surprise! He waters what was once dry. He revives a thirsty soul. He quenches our deepest needs with cool, clear, sustaining waters of grace and mercy. And beside the streams of His renewal, supplied miraculously in the desert, we can thrive by His sustaining presence! O God, I thank You for such streams that have come to me in my desert. The landscape now blooms with Your gracious supply to me. Jesus gave this to me by giving His life so that my life is made new.

The second image is of a harvest of joy. But the seeds of sorrow are first sown. This image reminds us that there are seasons where we sow in our sadness and loss. It hurts. And then we must wait for what may feel like a long time. We plant seeds of grief, watered by our tears and desperate prayers. God, Who is beside us all the time as we have sown and as we wait, then brings about an abundant harvest of unfathomable joy. He transforms by His restorative work our pain into praise, our sorrow into joy, our grief into rejoicing! God, this harvest I am now starting to see brought into my life, is clearly Your work alone. I planted painfully the seeds of sorrow. I am amazed at the new joy Your mercies have brought to me. It has been worth the wait. And with shouts of joy, I worship the God Who is faithful to restore with a new harvest to me.

restoration and revival

Restore us again, O God of our salvation,

and put away your indignation toward us!

Will you not revive us again,

that your people may rejoice in you?

Psalm 85:4, 6

When God does His saving work, He restores a relationship broken by our sin. He restores us in love even though our sin was worthy of His anger. He looks upon Jesus Who bore all God’s wrath in our judgment on the cross, and He lifts us, unworthy sinners though we are, to be His children… to be loved family now… recipients of mercy, grace, and restored relationship.

The God Who restores in salvation also lovingly restores in circumstances. He comforts the broken-hearted. He breaks the chains of captivity. He tears down the wall of hostility and releases those once hostage to sin’s suffering. He restores us again!

And this psalm reminds us that God cares not just about our spiritual condition, but also our emotional state. He revives the spirits of the souls He restores. Restoration and revival walk us hand-in-hand into the presence of a loving Father… they lead us, by Jesus, to not only be forgiven, but to feel the joy of revived life and restored fellowship. This is a relationship we know and feel. It moves us. Christians are on a long journey home, but it is a road of joy, renewal, grace, and revival. Restoration and revival are my soul’s growing place even as Jesus keeps leading me home to the Father step by step each day. Thank You, Lord!

Restoration’s Light

Restore us, O God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Psalm 80:7

my life grew grim

my light grew dim

sorrow and pain

clouds and rain

I saw faint light

through that stormy night

I needed to see

where You would be

amidst chaos and shaking

What were You making?

in the darkness I waited

dawn anticipated

Your face like sunshine

dispelled those clouds of mine

hope dawned a new day

as You began a new way

of working in my heart

a new direction to start

You restored blue skies

and much to my surprise

joy came in the morning

You ended my mourning

with Your smiling face

poured out love and grace

Saved from sin, loss, and sorrow

to a bright hope for tomorrow

I call now on Your name

and I praise God’s great fame

in Your power outpoured 

my life is now restored!

repentance and restoration

O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses;

you have been angry; oh, restore us.

Psalm 60:1

Sometimes we long for restoration because in our own sinful doing we have been disciplined by God. In this psalm David laments over the result of sin and judgment by God that followed in its wake. It feels like God has rejected His people. But what has happened is that God had broken through their misplaced values so that they would learn to trust in Him. The anger of God brought hardship with a purpose. And that purpose brought this prayer of repentance and heart-felt plea for God to restore lives.

David knows that Israel can in repentance run under the banner of a mighty God Who will save them (Psalm 60:4-5). He begs for God to fight for His people again because human might is a vain hope that only disappoints (Psalm 60:11). The only hope for restoration after a true repentance is the power of God to restore (Psalm 60:12).

I draw then this principle: When my experience senses a decline in divine blessing, I will first assume it is a call to examination of my heart for some needed repentance. And in confession I will plead for a gracious God to restore. With confidence, I know He will restore!

restore and sustain

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:12

God restores what sin destroys. And that grace is known fully in Christ when by faith in Christ’s death and resurrection a new life is reborn (John 3:3). God is so committed to restoring sinners that a kind of personal realized eschatology takes place spiritually… belief in Christ makes a person a new creation… a precursor to the day when God remakes the universe in a new heavens  and a new earth. The old has gone. The new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And with the rebirth and rebuilding comes joy. God brings joy when He restores. This is what David prays for in repentance in Psalm 51:12. David knows God‘s saving forgiveness will restore the joy that his sin had stolen away. Sinners need restoration. God, in Christ, gives it to us! And we can rejoice in that work.

When God restores He also sustains… with the joy of God‘s salvation comes the sustaining work of God as we are willing to obey Him. This is true in salvation in Christ to the greatest degree. God’s Holy Spirit comes to indwell, empower, and ensure our salvation. So what God restores He also carefully keeps. May the joy of my salvation and the sustaining presence of God‘s Spirit be known in me today!

restoring shepherd

He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness

for his name's sake.

Psalm 23:3

Jesus is my restorative Shepherd. As I meditate on Psalm 23 this morning, this most familiar passage of scripture, last expounded to me at a season of unfathomable grief, emphasizes for me the way that Jesus has shepherded my soul through the darkest experiences and into new sources of joy and seasons of intense renewal.

I am kept by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. I do not lack (Psalm 23:1). I can rest in fields of plenty and refresh myself by still waters of His peace, my soul no longer anxious or troubled by lack or by loss (Psalm 23:2). And this is how my soul is now restored. I am led by a tender Shepherd down the best paths of my life… even though I was once personally unsure at the path He had for me.

Jesus walked me through the valley of the shadow of death. And the evils around me, though real, and painful, did my soul no harm (Psalm 23:4a). Jesus has brought comfort in His Word, by His Spirit, and among His people (Psalm 23:4b). He has fed me, He has healed me, He has held me, He has kept me from the worst that my troubled soul has known (Psalm 23:5). And my Shepherd has restored life by His grace, goodness, and mercy as I dwell in worship of my restoring Shepherd forever (Psalm 23:6)! I truly live! My Shepherd restores my soul.

Restoration’s rejoicing

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

Psalm 14:7

Even though a world of God-haters seems to be getting the upper hand, believers can trust that unbelief is not winning the day. Psalm 14 opens with the clear observation that denying God’s reality is a fool’s pursuit (Psalm 14:1). The psalm then shows how an active God is seeking those who seek after Him (Psalm 14:2). But such people are unfortunately a rarity (Psalm 14:3). To make the situation even worse, the wicked who deny God prey upon those who seek after God which seems to be counter-intuitive to what God promises (Psalm 14:4).

But God is well aware of this situation and the mistreatment of the righteous by the wicked. He is with those who seek Him. He is a refuge to the oppressed (Psalm 14:5-6). And that is why Psalm 14 ends in confident faith and a call to praise the God Who restores what an evil world works so hard to destroy! Restoration is preceded by salvation. God moves to save His people. God restores to us as He saves us. It is cause for worship, celebration, and praise!

Living as we do in a broken world, we will at times feel that life is impossibly hard. We will experience the sting of death and sin’s curse. We will know times of loss and heartache. We feel it as a twisted, sinful world mocks God Whom we love and serve… the God we know as great and good. But in the foolish denials around us, in the painful losses we experience, God is still moving in a mighty way. It may be an undercurrent, but it is a flow of grace that moves us along as God intends. Salvation has come out of Zion because salvation has come in Christ at Calvary! God restores and we will rejoice as His hand changes our perspective and we confidently hope in Him! Amen! Let’s rejoice! Let’s be glad! God restores our souls and He cannot be denied!

God will restore.

…then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

Deuteronomy 30:3

Last week I completed a three year chronological reading and reflection on the Bible. Before I begin a new Bible Reading Plan later this summer, I want to do an extended study on the concepts of restoration and renewal in scripture. I imagine it will take me most of this spring and a big chunk of summer to finish. And I have personal reasons to do so. The last half of the chronological study I just finished was interrupted by a season of grief and intense personal loss. To survive, I found myself diving into God’s Word for understanding. I studied lament. I studying what it meant to “wait on God”. I emerged from those studies with hope again and then recommitted to finishing the chronological reading of scripture.

God now has me in a new season of life. I am seeing love restored. I am seeing hope restored. I am seeing joy returning to me in ways I would not have imagined before. God is regathering my soul from a scattered exile of sorts. And I am truly grateful. I want to dig into scripture to understand this renewal. Restoration is actually a major concept in the Bible, especially in the story of Israel in the Old Covenant, but also in the gospel truth of the New Testament. 

And so I embark on this new study, in a new time, with new purpose, filled with new hope. A God Who restores, renews, and showers mercy and grace on me will gather me to Himself as I learn even more about how He restores souls and rebuilds lives for His glory! Restore my fortunes and have mercy on me, O God!

coming soon

“And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

Revelation 22:7

Lord Jesus.

Just as Your promised the apostle John alone on Patmos, so I hear and keep Your words: You are coming soon. I am awaiting this! Nearly two thousand years have come and gone since You gave this promise. And Your church, Your bride, is comforted and kept by You awaiting Your return. We trust in this truth. We are not left alone in this world. We have Your promises. We have one another. We have Your Spirit. We have You! And in these experiences we await Your return like a bride longs for her groom’s arrival!

Jesus, You are coming soon! We trust this promise right now. We live with hope. We await Your voice. We keep Your words. We live in this world while longing for the next one. We know that the Day of the Lord is not far away where You will return and the nations will flee, sin will be eradicated, and Your rule will return humanity to Your original created desires.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Amen

They shall be Mine.

They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

Malachi 3:17

They shall be Mine,

says the Lord,

on the Day He judges the world.

They shall be Mine.

They shall be spared.

They shall be free.

They shall be Mine

saved by My hand

as I shake all the land.

They shall be Mine.

They shall be treasured.

They serve me.

They shall be Mine,

the Lord of hosts,

in His holy children boasts.

They shall be Mine.

They shall be blessed.

The world shall see.

They shall be Mine,

declares the Lord,

kept by the power of My Word.

They shall be Mine.

Now and on that day,

they belong to me.

God cares how we treat people.

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Malachi 2:10

How we treat other people is a direct reflection on our relationship with God. These three questions in this verse press into that truth. The first two questions are rhetorical. Yes… there is one God Who is our Father. Yes… that one God is also our Creator. Because of this truth, we must deal with the way in which we worship this God Who created us. We answer to an almighty Creator God.

The third, longer question is the heart of this section of Malachi’s message. Judah had become dismissive of God, not in terms of an official theology, but with a practical reality. They officially still believed God, kept a temple going, and went through the motions of sacrifice there. However, men were blatantly disobeying God, divorcing their Jewish wives and then marrying foreign women (perhaps pagan temple prostitutes) and then embracing idolatry while still culturally showing up at the Jerusalem temple with meager sacrifices to Yahweh. They profaned God by profaning the way they treated their families. God would not stand for this!

If I love God I will obey Him. If I obey God I will truly love people that are made in God’s image. I will honor my commitments to people… to family… to friends… and to my community. Anything less than this is lip-service and displeases God. God cares about how we care for others!

It is done.

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

Revelation 21:6

And it IS done! Jesus is firmly in control right now and forevermore. This very moment He is the One Who was and is and is to come! He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus is our risen Savior and Lord and the coming King over all the earth. He rules right now. He will rule forever.

Jesus gives refreshing new life. He offers this to all who will trust in Him, surrender to Him, and worship Him. He gives eternal life forever to all who believe. He is our new beginning. Jesus will be our end! Jesus gives life, sustains life, and is our life and it is He Who will rule tenderly all the hearts who come to Him in repentance and trust in His sacrifice and resurrection life.

And so my thirsty soul drinks in what you give to me, Jesus! It is done! Salvation and satiation are fully accomplished in You! When this soul flies from my worn out body, it will join with those around Your throne right now. And You will one day resurrect a new body for me that will serve You joyfully forever. Praise to this King! It is done!