God our Restorer

Have you ever felt that you are far behind the race of life compared to rest of the crowd and might soon lose out? Do you need a head start in life? You might perceive that others around you in the race might have overtaken you in many aspects of life, be it achieving great heights in life, career, education, family and society. The immediate human instinct is to compare it all with your present situation and be dismayed and discouraged about oneself. You might claim within yourself that you have become a failure. But do not lose heart because our God can restore everything. 

The life of Job was brought to my attention when I thought along the same lines. Job 1:1 says “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.” 

God Himself justifies that there is none on the face of the earth like Job who fears God and shuns evil. Job had everything that a man could possibly desire to possess. But he lost all his wealth, livestock, servants and all his children on a single day. We cannot fathom this downfall. Job’s initial response is given in Job 1:21-22 “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

Imagine how contrasting our response would be when we face a lot of negative incidents and losses on a single day. We would immediately curse that day and start questioning God. Job in his human frailty might have been in great remorse and in discouragement. 

Job 4:5 talks about our genuine feelings when we had once gained everything but now have reached the starting line yet again. We tend to be impatient with ourselves and dismay seizes us. “Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees.But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed.”

Job 8: 5-7 brings a sense of great hope in times of trouble. “If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation.

And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great.”

You might think that you have become an utter failure and there is no point of return in your life. But the Word of God reminds you to seek God and plead with Him for mercy at such times. And God will arise from His throne and restore everything. It emphasizes that your latter days would be greater than your former ones. It’s hard to grasp the depth of these words in our hard times but understand that we serve a God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did! Job rightly acknowledges the greatness of God and exclaims “ He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.” (Job 9: 10) 

“Can you solve the mysteries of God? Can you discover everything about the Almighty? 

Such knowledge is higher than the heavens—  and who are you? It is deeper than the underworld—what do you know? It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea.” (Job 11:7-9) 

I was marvelled by the words God spoke to Job in response to all his agitation that was vented. Job had a lot of unanswered queries when he went through these trials. But God, instead asks Job a lot of questions through which one can easily understand the greatness of our God and indirectly brought clarity to Job's queries. From Job 38, some of them were:

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

    Tell me, if you know so much.

Who determined its dimensions

    and stretched out the surveying line?

What supports its foundations,

    and who laid its cornerstone

“Who kept the sea inside its boundaries

    as it burst from the womb,

and as I clothed it with clouds

    and wrapped it in thick darkness?

For I locked it behind barred gates,

    limiting its shores.

I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come.

    Here your proud waves must stop!’

“Where does light come from,

    and where does darkness go?

“Have you visited the storehouses of the snow

    or seen the storehouses of hail?

Where is the path to the source of light?

    Where is the home of the east wind?

Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground

    and make the tender grass spring up?

Who provides food for the ravens

    when their young cry out to God

    and wander about in hunger?"

This truly describes how great and awesome our God is and that He can do all things. Nothing is too difficult for our God! Often the cause of our anxieties is the fact that we forget the greatness and power of the God whom we serve. Let the above verses remind you today of God’s wisdom and strength. 

The God who laid the foundations of the earth and who kept the sea inside its boundaries restored everything in Job’s life. Job 42:10(b), 12 says “the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.” 

God is reminding us through the life of Job, that whatever the evil one has devoured, God can restore it double-fold. Are you heavy-laden and at the peak of disappointment thinking about your losses and professing that you cannot regain anything at this point? Do you long for a fresh start? Know that God can swiftly restore everything that you have lost. I was greatly encouraged by God's promise of restoration in Joel 2:25-26 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.”

We can see through the life of Joseph, that he lost the prime of his life by serving Potiphar and later being imprisoned. He might have sensed that he was far away from the fulfillment of the great dreams that he had once obtained. All it took for God to restore Joseph’s dreams and worth was by injecting 2 dreams into Pharaoh's life. When God restored his years, it took no time for Joseph to be transferred from a dungeon to being second-in-command in Egypt. That’s how speedily God works!

The story of Hannah reiterates that our God restores. Hannah spent years waiting for a child and was greatly oppressed by her rival. Although the LORD had closed her womb and several years had passed, when she went into God’s presence and poured out her soul to the LORD in prayer, the LORD remembered her and she gave birth to a son - Samuel. When God restores, it’s always extraordinary. She bore no ordinary child, instead Samuel's greatness can be seen in 1 Samuel  3: 19-20: “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.”

Be confident of this that God is our restorer and whatever you have lost, be it your time, success, energy, wealth or worth, God is able to restore it swiftly and in an outstanding manner. Our God is not limited by anything and it is never too late for Him to act in your situation. Bring your worries to the feet of Jesus and experience how He restores and grants you success.

#restoration #healing #greatness #Job #Joseph #Hannah #Inspire4Christ