Here’s some wonderful news for you today: God wants to restore every part of your life.
Reality right now for many is not a good place; for many, it means lost jobs, livelihoods, loved ones, or even just a miserable array of anxieties, frustrations, and problems that make you feel like you’re in a financial or personal wilderness.
The pain is real.
Thankfully, so is the God Who Restores.
In whatever desolate or desperate place you currently find yourself, did you know there is actually hope for your days ahead?
This “hope” is not a cheap, vague word to pick you up for five minutes, but is the reality that the Creator of the universe is with you right now wherever you are reading this, knows every day of your life before you were even born, and is zealously committed to loving and caring for you.
Jesus said, “The thief [Satan] comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
The Lord also said, “’I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper, not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”
Jesus has only ever wanted good for us, but the enemy of your life, Satan, hates that and wants only to harm and destroy you—he lies to try to convince you to turn away from God and walk in a miserable wilderness of fear, hopelessness, and most horribly, separation from the God who made you and cares deeply for you.
But even when we do stray from Jesus, He’s already proved His relentless love by coming to our broken world to rescue you from that enemy and restore you back to Him and the abundant life He dreamed of for you—all because you’re His cherished creation.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil,” the Scriptures say.
What does all that mean for you right now? If God is so good and caring, why is this crisis happening in your life, and why isn’t He doing this or that?
We may not understand why, but this is what we do know: He will restore.
What the devil means for harm, God will turn for good. Where there are ashes, God promises to bring beauty. Where there seems to be no way out of your situation, He promises to make a way—especially in our most desolate and desperate places. These moments, when there’s nothing else to rely on but Him, are actually when He restores the most abundantly and beyond what we could hope or imagine.
You may already know the word “restore” means “to bring back something that was lost,” as well as “to rebuild, repair, renew.”
But interestingly, in the ancient Hebrew scriptures, “restore” translates “to ascend, to go up, to spring forth”—it conveys the idea of a dawn breaking, a growing back and flourishing after desolation, a mounting up to fly.
How can we trust Jesus to do something like that in our life? Because it’s who He is and what He’s always done throughout history.
When the Israelites were slaves thousands of years ago, hopelessly stuck and wailing under Pharaoh’s oppressive Egypt, God powerfully delivered them and released them to a free new land.
When they were journeying in the wilderness toward that land and suddenly chased by Pharaoh’s army, hopelessly trapped near the ocean, God created an escape route by splitting open the Red Sea.
When they were in the middle of the desert and ran out of food and water, God sprung forth a gushing river out of a rock and rained bread from heaven.
Jesus healed those who had no cure. He cleansed lepers that everyone else shunned and gave up on. He calmed a raging storm that had his disciples panicking for their lives. He even raised those who were already dead and in the tomb.
Today, you can trust Him, His intentions toward you, and His plans for your life because He’s faithful and wildly good. He’s powerful to overcome any harm the devil means for you. He never, ever changes His mind about you, and the same God who wondrously restored all of those hopeless disasters is with you right now, in your crisis.
“I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,” The Lord said in the book of Isaiah.
“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,” He also said. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
“The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy!” The Lord continues in the book of Isaiah. “The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the LORD will display his glory, the splendor of our God.”
“The Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior,” Zephaniah says. “He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
He sees you. He hears you. He knows every detail. He invites you to cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you. He has plans to prosper you, not harm you.
He’s here to comfort you in the loss and the brokenness, and to lift up your head to see His wondrous and beautiful restoration that He is bringing in your life.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him,”
—Psalm 34:8
