Restoration
From Shiloh with Love
January 22Sometimes I sense the Spirit giving me a word that just seems to hang on and on in my mind. Yesterday, the word was restoration. It popped up in the Gideon study I'm presently participating in, in regards to the Cycle of Redemption which the Israelites repeated and repeated.
1) Rejection of God's way
2) Decline of God's people
3) Consequences allowed by God's hand
4) Restored relationship to God's presence
When this reoccurrence of a word happens I do two things. I investigate the dictionary definition and I plugged the word into Biblegateway.com to inquire if the Lord wants to teach me something scripturally about that word. Sometimes there is another word from the definition that gets tossed into the Biblical Word search as well. This process thrills my heart every time!
The Bible study group I'm in shared prayer requests and many of those requests related to the desire for restoration of relationships, faith, joy, health, etc.
Check out the definition from Merriam Webster:
:the act or process of returning something to its original condition by repairing it, cleaning it, etc.
:the act of bringing back something that existed before
:the act of returning something that was stolen or taken
Now let's personalize those and see where restoration needs to occur in our own lives.
Take the investigation a step further as these scriptures penetrate your heart. Be restored! It's God's best for your life.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen 1 Peter 5:9-11
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in tis way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something they are not, they deceive themselves. Galatians 6:1-3
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you. Psalm 51:11-13
The word return jumped out to me in the definitions and I thought….Return to your First Love!
The Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name! But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always. Hosea 12:5-7
What great nuggets to carry into today!
