Restoration

Dear All,

Thank you again for your prayers and time spent fasting over the last few days, I believe we are really seeing God move. I have heard good things from a few of you who have been seeking the Lord and it is so encouraging!

This morning I wanted to talk about restoration. I looked up the definition of restore in the dictionary and it has a few meanings. One is to reestablish, to bring back in to existence or use, another meaning to bring back to an original condition, and another, to put someone back in a former position. How wonderful that these meanings can sum up what God can do. He is our restorer. He carefully puts the pieces back together to create who he has planned for us to be. Things often get in the way of us finding our purpose in Him, including sickness, and we get a bit messed up. But Jesus, a truely talented artist, restores each of us with the careful detail he had when he created us.

A beautiful verse in Isaiah 49 v 8 starts with the title :"Restoration of Israel 8 This is what the LORD says: "In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land."

How awesome that we have a God that chooses to restore us. I love that this verse talks about the "time of His [my] favour". It is all about God's timing! I have often asked myself why God hasn't chosen to heal my dad straight away, why has he had to go through nearly 5 years of treatment and quite frankly suffering, but then I remember that God's timing is perfect. My dad 5 years ago was not the man he is today. I know that he knows that as well. He truly has God's favour on his life, and he is humble and gracious like he once never was. You see God can use our situations to change us from the heart outwards. I believe that God has touched my dad's heart so greatly, and now this is my dad's time of physical restoration, although I believe the spiritual restoration is an ongoing process for us all! How true is this for us?? How many times do we go through stuff and think Lord just change my situation, restore my health, restore my finances, my job etc etc. But you see guys, we forget that God has work to do on the inside of us first. There is no point restoring a beautiful chapel on the outside but leaving the inside a mess and pretty grim. It would seem beautiful to look at from a distance but the old issues on the inside would eventually cause it to tumble down. Sometimes God needs to repair the foundations before He works on the things we think are most important.

Wow ok, that is my ramblings for the day done! I hope you are encouraged! Please do share any words from God with us so that we too may be encouraged.

Prayer poinrts
1. Restoration: physical healing and restoration of our family (cancer hits us all)
2. perserverance: to keep on keeping on. There are times when things are more difficult than others, please pray we keep focused on God and what He has in store for us.


God bless you all and have an amazing weekend!

Shahlaa x