The God of Restoration
He is a God who loves to take the greatest of evil, sin, and failures in this world and not simply eliminate them but rather restore them to good and for His glory. He took the cross, which was one of the worst means of torture and execution in the ancient world, and turned it into the very symbol of our faith. That which brought about excruciating death has now been redeemed to bring about life and joy unspeakable.
“2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,” (Psalm 103:4, ESV)
He is not a God to condemn us for our sins, but rather he desires to restore us from our sins to Himself. This is exactly what He did with the apostle Paul, He took a man who is so violently persecuting the NT church and He restored him. God could have easily poured fire down from heaven and consumed Paul and so ended his persecution of the church, but He did something even more miraculous, He redeemed Paul, and brought forth millions of salvations through his testimony and his writings. God made his brilliant light shine through the darkness of Paul’s life.
“O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.” (Psalm 130:7, ESV)
His redemption is plentiful! Sometimes when we think of His mercies, we liken it to a stream that has its limits, and yet His mercies are not like a stream but are as an endless ocean. His salvation has no limits. The greatness of our sins cannot exhaust the abundance of His redemption.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, ESV)
In God’s unlimited power He is able to take the whole of our lives, and make something glorious of it all. At the end of our lives when we come before the judgment seat of Christ, His redemption is such that He will take all of the seasons of our greatest victories, and the seasons of our greatest failures, and not leave one part of our lives to waste. He will make a beautiful mosaic of all the seasons of our lives.
It is described to us in the gospels that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead that He still had his scars from the suffering He endured on His body, and He will carry those scars with him throughout eternity. His scars will forever serve as a testimony of His victory over death and His great love for us. Many of us are carrying around scars from people who have hurt us in the past or from seasons of hardships, and many of us carry scars in our hearts from our past sin and failures in our life. Often we would like to remove the scars of these past seasons, but God doesn’t. He wants to redeem these scars and make them into a testimony of His redemptive power. He desires to redeem our past seasons of failures and turn them into good. One of the practical ways that God redeems our past seasons is when we learn from them and share them with others so as to help those around us.
A personal example of this in my life is with finances. In my early adult years when I was starting to work at House of Prayer Edmonton as a missionary, it was my dream to be in full-time ministry but I didn't have the finances to do, so I was also working part time jobs to make ends meet. In this time, I had a very difficult time learning how to steward my money. I had very little value for savings and there were many foolish things that I spent my money on that I wish I hadn’t, but the glory of that past season is that I learned from my mistakes and I am now a faithful steward of my finances. I remember many times reflecting back on that season with the Lord, and how I would pray things like “Lord why don't You just give me a million dollars to go full-time at HoPE for the rest of my life?”. You see, if God had given me such an amount of money in my immaturity it would've crushed me because I lacked the ability to steward it. Rather in His wisdom He provided just enough for me in that season so as to teach me how to budget, pay bills, and put money in savings with a smaller amount of income. Now that I know how to steward well because of this past season, God has entrusted me with far more in my life. Thus, God has redeemed this season in my life and I gladly share it with those around me so as to encourage and hopefully direct them in wise ways to steward their funds.
So today I want to encourage you with the truth that our God is a God of redemption and restoration! If there is a past season of your life where you carry shame because you feel like you have failed God, a friendship, or even yourself, I have good news; God is wanting to bring good from that season!
I encourage you to pray this prayer with me: Jesus I feel like I have fallen short in this past season of my life. I ask You to show me how You desire to redeem it and how I can learn from this season that I might live differently and share with others about how You have redeemed this time in my life. I thank You that You are for me and not against me. You're not a God who condemns me but you are a God who works all things in my life for my good and your glory.
Photo by Alicia Quan on Unsplash
