Restoration

Thursday, ‎October ‎27, ‎2022

Good Morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: Acts 8:22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Memory verse: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Today's reading: JEREMIAH 12-14 2 TIMOTHY 1

Restoration

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down in green pastures and leadeth me beside the still waters; He restoreth my soul...(From Psalm 23)

Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:16 about how his friend Onesiphorus often refreshed him.

The Lord restores or refreshes our souls. Paul's friend refreshed him.

The Lord refreshes each of us in different ways--through the word or the Holy Spirit or green pastures and still waters--whatever these things may mean in your life. But God also uses our friends to refresh us. He will use us to refresh each other if we get our eyes off ourselves and onto Him.

There is that concept of 'God focus' again.

But to aim at refreshing someone is not the goal.

To focus on God and His kingdom so that God can set our hearts and minds 'right'...this is a goal worth having and here we will be refreshing to each other...

To realize that having Jesus in our midst in the person of the Holy Spirit is a milestone. Nothing else matters. A.W. Tozer wrote:

"In our time we have all kinds of status symbols in the Christian church—membership, attendance, pastoral staff, missionary offerings. But there is only one status symbol that should make a Christian congregation genuinely glad. That is to know that our Lord is present, walking in our midst!...The Christian church dares not settle for anything less than the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the presence of our divine Prophet, Priest and King in our midst."(from the book Jesus Is Victor)

In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzer had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the firey furnace and when he looked in he said, ""Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."(Daniel 3:25)

In all that moment, nothing was more important than Jesus being in the fire with them.

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flames will not set you ablaze.

There is a lot thrown at us in this life-but-if we ever get it through our thick hearts and heads that the most powerful and loving presence in existence is personally ours and Christ is with us, we will be at the point where the world cannot touch us.

"But godliness with contentment is great gain." 1 Timothy 6

Christ in our lives is here to continually restore His righteousness in us. The great gain of contentment is a by-product of His being present. Our attention to him-our focus on Him-our growing love for Him is what keeps the restoring of our souls going.

Nothing is more important to our continual restoration than our awareness of Christ with us always.

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I confess my focus is weak. I fear threats from the world. Train my focus. Sharpen my awareness of Your presence.

Complete God of peace and restoration,

In the name of Jesus,

Amen