The God Who Restores

“So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you” (Joel 2:25).

One of the things I’ve learned rather slowly in life is that for every one of my actions there are always corresponding reactions.  In general terms, we can say good decisions are usually met with positive results and wrong decisions usually result in negative results. Or more to the point of this passage by the prophet Joel, willful sin by God’s people will always be met with the focused attention of our Heavenly Father and His corresponding discipline for His children.

His discipline is meant to correct and bring back those who have strayed because He loves us enough not to just let us go our own way. He is after all the Great Shepherd of our souls. Our God is fully able to restore and bring back to usefulness and fruitfulness His people who will turn to Him regardless of their past disobedience.  He loves to meet our repentance with His restoration.  As the invitation by God illustrates in this same chapter:

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and He relents over disaster” (Joel 2:12-13).

Here’s a point or two about the God Who Restores:

First, our God is in the business of restoring broken hearts and broken dreams. It is His practice to mend that which is torn. He picks up the pieces of our dashed hopes and seals them back together again. He heals that which is has been injured  and He relieves the pain with soothing balms of love and compassion. He is the God of Compassion, Love and Restoration.

Secondly,  His method of operation is to make things even better than they were before. He has a track record of doing just that. You can check it out. Just ask Job or Joseph or most any follower of Jesus. God goes beyond what we would consider a gracious act of love. He restores. Restoring means more than simply putting things back where they were. He gives back what was lost and then some. Whether it was lost promises or plans, whether it was lost days or years, they are not lost, they are restored. He doesn’t rest until things are made more than right.

From my own experience, I know that He likes to more than make things like they were, He likes to make them even better.

As I reflect on my own life, I’ve seen God take my wrong turns (otherwise known as sins) and turn them into going the right direction with angelic escorts leading the way! Praise God!

Revived, Renewed And Restored,

God’s Best,

Dar