When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. (Psalms 126:1, ESV)
Some things are too good to be true. Things truly happen and they only seem like dreams. We serve a God who restores and there is no sense in placing any limit on his ability. Nothing gets so bad that he can not make good again or too wrong that he can not make right again. Man is fallible and full of flaws and often becomes the architect of his own undoing and downfall. Almost all the challenges we encounter in life can be traceable either to the works of the devil or to our human imperfection. Our Lord Jesus refers to the devil as the one who steals, kills and destroys (John 10:10). God on the other hand is the doing of good and in him, there is no evil. We are told that God can not be tempted with evil nor does he tempt any man with evil. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away through his own lust and enticed (James 1:13-15). We often become captives of our action actions or actions and have our lives grossly complicated with grave consequences arising therefrom.
God is gracious and full of mercy, attributes that make him look upon humanity with pity even when we are led away by own misdeeds.
We all have made errors and are often times badly hurt by the consequences of same, but whether we under an attack from the enemy or we are suffering from the consequences of our own mistakes, God in his mercies never allows us to live in them forever. He not alone makes a way of escape for us (1 Corinthians 10:13), he often also restores that which the enemy had stolen.
The life of Job depicts clearly how that God can restore in several folds whatever the enemy may have stolen. It is amazing how that God does not panic while the enemy is at his worst. This confidence is borne out of the fact that there is nothing that is beyond God. From a place of abundance, the devil reduced Job to absolute nothingness having lost all that he had in one day (Job 1:12-19, Job 2:7-10). Yet from this place of absolute nothingness and apparent hopelessness, God restored Job to a position far better than he was before. We read with delight how that God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. God gave him far more than he had lost (Job 42:12). Like Job, we sometimes go through things that we lack the capacity to understand; things seemingly too weighty for us to hand. We sometimes go through crisis that appear to have no end, yet God in his infinite mercies moderates all that we go through with a set time in his mind for our vindication. Many times, even the wicked ridicules us and and we are brought into judgment and condemnation by those who do not come anywhere near us in matters of integrity and propriety. Like the man born blind, the world around us tries to find the reasons for our woes in the sins they presumed we may have committed (John 9:1-2).
But in the midst of all of these, we should never forget that God is a God of justice and in the end, he will vindicate us. We may like David be pursued by Saul without a cause. We may like Joseph be forgotten behind the prison walls for no wrong we have done. Like Jesus, we may be constrained to go through Samaria on our way to Galilee (whatever that may represent in our lives). Life many times takes us, not necessarily through the path we desire but the path that is necessary. And as believers, we must trust God enough for grace to be able to place the necessary roads in our lives over and above the desired. Sometimes, even our most pious dispositions to life may still bring us face to face with afflictions. Understanding this is important so we do not at every turn in our lives become victims of self condemnation and pity. We must realize that indeed, our good works may even attract the venom of an evil world to the point that we may even suffer for doing good. In all these, we should never forget that like David, God has designed our limited time in the bush as the seed sown for a throne that will endure forever.
We should never forget that the path to the palace must of necessity pass through the pit and the prison as we see with Joseph.
We must always be full of hope that as it happened for Joseph, our lowly prison uniform would some day be exchanged for the glamorous robe of a Prime Minister. We must arm ourselves with the faith and confidence that it is possible to become the ruler in a land that had once taken us captive. We must consider the time spent in our trials as opportunities to build capacity and develop the gifts and talents that would someday bring us before the king and launch us to our thrones. We must constantly assure ourselves that the path to higher glory is often the way of the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:20-30). If Jesus learnt obedience and attain unto maturity through the things which he suffered (Hebrews 5:8), we should never expect that God would prescribe a different route for us. The lesson here is that we must sow in hope regarding our seemingly unpleasant seasons as seed times, knowing that at the right time, we would reap a worthy harvest if we faint not (Galatians 6:9; Psalm 126:5-6)
God is not just a deliverer from the devil. He delivers us from ourselves too, and graciously restores even those things that were lost to our stupidity and indiscretion. One cry that God can never turn a deaf ear to is a genuine cry for help and mercy. We all can share in the testimony of the psalmist when he wrote “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears” (Psalm 120:1). Whether we ourselves or others are the architects of our misfortune, God is willing and able to turn things around for us. If there is anything that God is unrelenting and unrepentant about, it is his limitless capacity to show mercy. His mercies, we are told are not only new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), they also endure forever (Psalm 136:1), and are from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 103:17). It is a good prayer to pray that the LORD would satisfy us early with his mercy so we may be glad all of our days (Psalm 90:14). The story of Israel shows how that God has no limit to his forgiveness. His anger may endure for a moment but his favour is for life (Psalm 30:5).
The devil may want us to wallow in self pity and condemnation, but God’s arms are always open to us to receive and to restore.
Whoever God receives, he restores. It is to the glory of God that he makes good again whatever the devil had made bad. The one big limitation to our restoration many times is our unwillingness to accept pardon and embrace the forgiveness that God freely offers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not so much we can truly do to undo yesterday’s errors, but there is a lot God can do to deliver us from the consequences of our wrong choices if we would turn to him in faith and repentance. One must be quick to admit that whether it is the result of an onslaught of hell against us or the consequences of our own error, things sometimes get so bad that we almost think there would be no end to our woes. But that is only a misrepresentation of our situation by the devil, and to accept his narrative is to lengthen our days in captivity. We, as believers, must constantly and patiently wait for the LORD knowing that his thoughts for us are always thought of peace and not of evil (Jeremiah 29:11).
God says that he will restore to us the years that the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm had eaten (Joel 2:25). Even though these worms were God’s agent of judgment against an evil generation, he promised that he would show mercy, rescind his decision and restore the land. God is not only a restorer of time lost, He is also a restorer of fortunes. Along with the promise of restoration in the book of Joel is a promise of abundance and a permanent removal of shame from our lives (Joel 2:26-27). The word of comfort to us this month is that our warfare is ended and the LORD has proclaimed everlasting joy unto us (Isaiah 40:2, Isaiah 61:7). May the LORD restore our fortunes and undo every captivity in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Happy New Month!
Pastor Jerry Orhue
Senior Pastor, Gracevine Chapel
www.gracevinechapel.org
