Restore

Listen:

“And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” 1 Peter 5:10: 

Reflect:

The word RESTORE Peter used here is actually the Greek word for fixing a broken bone. When Peter’s confident declaration that God Himself will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast got me wondering what needs restoring in me?  What is broken that God is longing to restore, set straight, heal?  

Let’s carry Peter’s analogy a bit further. When dealing with a broken bone, there are two basic things you need to do: 

1.  The first thing you need to do is to “set” it, making sure the limb is not crooked, and point it in the right direction. When I was 10 I broke my wrist ice skating. My wrist throbbed with pain until the doctor pulled on it. The pain soared into an orbit all its own! My mom said she’d never seen a mouth open so wide with no sound (the original “silent scream”!)  There’s no easier way – it’s got to be physically pulled until the broken bone is totally lined up – the hurt must happen for the bone to heal right. 

2.  The second thing you need to do is to “cast” it. A cast, or plaster encasing, holds the broken bone in place so that it can knit back together.  The cast protects the bone from outside forces and further injury.  However, if the cast is too tight, the pressure will affect the blood supply, doing more damage than good, and the bone won’t heal properly.  Too much pressure from the outside is people who think they’re helping; but by encouraging you, “to just get on with your life, this is in the past, move on”, they’re actually causing further injury by pressuring you into doing things at their pace rather than letting God take you at His pace. 

Sometimes you need to be in a cast for a season.  This doesn’t mean that you live the rest of your life cocooned from reality, but you need distance and protection from outside forces, so that the Holy Spirit can work effectively in your healing process and restoration.

It’s going to hurt to be “reset” so that my brokenness can be knit back into wholeness. I’m going to be in a cast for a while – not isolated, but with a good blood supply of God’s grace. I’m going to need time, but that’s okay, because the end result is what we all long for: to be a strong, firm and steadfast follower of Christ.

Prayer of Response:

“Thank You Lord for reminding us of Your promise ‘to restore, make strong, firm and steadfast’.  For so many of us today who are wrestling in our suffering, it brings great peace to know that we need only surrender our anxieties to You, and trust You fully to bring restoration in Your perfect timing and according to You perfect will. Amen!”                     

—Submitted by Audrey Jose