A
Year of Restoration?
Last year my web hosting provider’s
servers were infected with malware. The three websites I built and
maintain were down for a few weeks while the provider determined the
nature of the malware, the date its servers were infected and cleaned
them up.
They identified a date a few months
prior to the infection, and restored all my website files as of that
date. As a result, I lost several files that were easily uploaded from
my computer via FTP to complete the restoration process.
The same dynamic occurs in the
Christian life. Sometimes disobedience and/or neglect of our walk with
Jesus demands an act of restoration, a cleaning up of whatever
spiritual malware it was that ‘infected’ us and bringing us back to
baseline of power and usefulness.
As we enter 2020, that’s a worthy
goal for all of us who’ve experienced God’s saving grace of the Lord
Jesus. If any of us can remember a time when we were MORE in love with
Jesus and MORE useful than we are now, we qualify for an act of
spiritual restoration.
Consider these three biblical
references. The first is Psalm 23:3—“He RESORETH [refreshes, repairs]
my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's
sake.” In this text, the restoration could be understood to imply a
need due to depletion of strength rather than sin or
disobedience.
The second is Psalm 51:12: “RESTORE
[bring back] unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [so I don't make the same mistake again] with thy
free spirit.” The need for restoration here is clearly one brought on
by transgression and the loss of intimate fellowship.
The third is Galatians 6:1—“Brethren,
if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, RESTORE [mend
or repair that which is broken] such an one in the spirit of meekness;
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” If you and I need
spiritual mending and repair, it's a certainty our fellow brothers and
sisters in Christ stand in the same need from time to time.
Let’s call this a 2020 REVIVAL
challenge. First, let’s ask the Lord to SEARCH us and expose any
spiritual malware that might have infected us (Psalm 139:23), and
RESTORE our souls to pre-infection status. Secondly, once the Lord has
RESTORED us, let’s ask him to use us to help RESTORE someone else, a
fellow brother or sister, who might have been infected (overtaken) with
spiritual malware.
If we can see God do just these two things for us in 2020, it will have
been a great year despite all the other turmoil we’re sure to
encounter. So, will 2020 be a year of restoration for you?
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