Restoring the years

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Psalm 51: 12

One of the most wonderful things about God is his restoration process. God does not just want to save us from our sins, foolishness and mistakes; he wants to restore us to ‘good as new’.  When David sinned in adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah he was overcome with his guilt and cried out to God in repentance and for restoration. God graciously answered his prayer. David married Bathsheba and their next child Solomon, despite not being the oldest son, became his heir and continued the Messianic family line.

If we think of a restoration project whether that is an old car or an old building, the object is to restore from a state of ruin or dilapidation into something that looks and to all intents and purposes is brand new. It is usually a wonder to behold.

God’s restoration is even more incredible. Reading the Old Testament prophets can leave you weighted down with a sense of God’s judgement and grief over Israel’s sin and stubborn refusal to repent and turn back to God. However at some point in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel judgment turns to restoration and again and again God promises wonderful things to his rebellious people. He shows them that though they will be going into exile for their rebellion, he also promises to bring them back to the land.

In our own lives God does not just want to save us and leave us there. He wants to restore us and restore ‘the years that the locust has eaten’ which is unfortunately a rather overworked Bible reference (Joel 2:25). The truth though is that there is no area of our lives that God does not want to restore and by that he means turn it to ‘good as new’. What is even more exciting is that he often uses those areas of greatest failure to become our greatest strengths in the future.

My own teenage years were fairly torrid and there was little to be proud of. God however has used those years of awful failure to give me such a heart to see teenagers now not wasting those years like I did. Instead I have been able to help them walk those tricky times holding onto God and laying a Godly foundation on which they can build their adult lives. I too want to encourage and help those who wasted their teenage years educationally to realise it is never too late with God. He will help us recover our lost education. I got my degree aged 47 so I am a walking testimony of that.

If there is an area of your life that you feel was lost, no matter the reason why, ask God now to restore it and return it to good-as-new. Trust him with the restoration process and thank him for the good things he has already done to restore your life to be more like Jesus.