Restoration

 

I was thinkingabout Job and everything he went through. We hear in great detail (chapters upon chapters) how much he suffered, but we don’t hear as much detail about his restoration. For example, his kids died, in the restoration era, shouldn’t his kids have resurrected from the dead? Yes, he got more kids (new kids), but can kids be replaced? 

Job 42:10 ESV And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

What does restoration look like?

 

Joel 2:25-26 ESV I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.

I don’t know what I thought restoration would look like, but now that I am in that season, the concept of restoration has taken on a new meaning. When the Lord restores to us all that the cankerworm have eaten, do the cankerworm vomit what they ate and the leaf they chewed become whole again? I don’t think so. All this to say, could we have missed restoration because we couldn’t identify it when it came?

I prayed to the Lord for the dry bones of business ventures I founded to live again. But He said no. Shut everything down. It’s all too far gone. I’ll give you something else instead. (God loves the NEW!). I don’t know how the Phoenix rises from the ashes, but God gives you beauty for ashes. You trade them in. He doesn’t transform them. It’s like how some beverage companies need you to bring the empty bottle before you can buy the next drink/beer. We don’t know what God does with the ashes, we just know he gives us beauty in return for them.

Some bells can’t be unrung when you have rung them. For example, if you had a baby with a dead beat in your flop era, will God put the baby back in your womb in the spirit of restoration? There are some things that just can’t be undone. But the all-knowing, merciful God, knows how to mend it in a place you didn’t realise it needed fixing the most. Usually, that child from a less than ideal situation will do far better than the kids who came from the idyllic situation. That stone that the builders refuse? It’s not to be played with.

Women friendships have hurt me, please. Let it not go without saying. And in this season, God has sent me Precious Anne and she is a force. I remember texting her once and telling her, I can’t fall in love with you please, my heart won’t allow. The trauma of broken down friendships will not vuma for me to try this again. But then, how will restoration come when you are holding on so tightly to the ashes, and you refuse to hand them over? How do you recognise and receive restoration when you can’t see past your pain and previous trauma? 

Isaiah 61:3 NLT To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.

Do you know what ashes are? Ashes mean that something burned hot! It was completely incinerated until you can’t tell its original form. You may have even gotten your fingers burned trying to rescue that thing from the fire. Sometimes trauma can be a good thing, a protector even. I have a scar from when I was 7. And 29 years later, I still know that irons are hot and they are not your friend. But will I never use an iron again just because it burnt me when I was 7?

1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

I sat down this weekend trying to dismantle the social media platforms and websites for the things I still care about. All the dreams that went up in flames and are now as worthless as ashes. But I have to trust the Lord when He says He’ll give me something even better. I genuinely gave it my best and that’s all I could have given at that moment in time. I’m trying to reframe it in my mind so that it doesn’t feel like a failure, like I gave up. It’s hard. Like Lot’s wife, I keep looking back at the past and being salty about it.

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