He Brings Restoration

The past couple of days I have been in Kentucky visiting one of my dearest friends. While I was there I needed to have some dental work done by her husband, who just so happens to be an Oral Maxillofacial Surgeon.

Let me tell you, my teeth are quite deceiving. They may look healthy and white, but oh do they cause me trouble. I won't bore you with my dental history, but I will tell you that I am in need of an implant and crown on tooth # 19.

Last year I went to him and he pulled the tooth. Step two should have been - come back in a few months and we will put in an implant. Well, time passed and life got so busy. I couldn't get up there as quickly as I should have.

When I got into town, I went in for an X-ray. Not the news I had expected.

Doc: "Looks like you have some deterioration."

Me: "What does that mean?"

Doc: "The bone, where we pulled that tooth, has deteriorated. I need to rebuild that bone before we put in the implant. The implant would have nothing to hold to if we tried to put one in right now. Your structure is gone."

Restoration -1 : an act of restoring a : a bringing back to a former position or condition : reinstatement b : restitution c : a restoring to an unimpaired or improved condition d : the replacing of missing teeth or crowns
2 : something that is restored; especially : a representation or reconstruction of the original form

I am seeing this pattern everywhere right now.

Brokenness...Impair...Disenegration...Deterioration...Frailty...

Repair.....Reconstruction....Restoration.

I am seeing this need for restoration not only in my mouth, but in broken marriages, broken churches, broken friendships, broken families, broken dreams.

Broken hearts.

But I see another pattern.

I see patterns, time and time again, in Scripture. Patterns of Restoration.

God brings Restoration.

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

God's Pattern of Restoration is evident.

He restores:

- Position (Gen 40:12)
- Fortune (Deu 30:3)
- Inheritance (2 Sam 9:7)
- Structures (Neh 4:2)
- Our rightful place (Job 8:6)
- Joy (Ps. 51:12)
- Life (Ps. 71:20)
- Comfort (Is. 57:18)
- Generations of Devastation (Is 61:4)
- Land (Jer. 16:15
- Sight (Acts 9:12)
- Sinful Man (Gal 6:1)

God doesn't just "improve" us. He establishes us. He makes us strong, firm and steadfast. He makes up for years lost (Joel 2:25). He transforms us.

He brings restoration to our souls.

David Brymer has a song titled Restoration. The lyrics read...

You've taken my pain and call me by a new name.
You've taken my shame and in its place you give me joy.

You take my mourning and turn it into dancing.
You take my sadness and turn it into joy.
You take my weeping and turn it into laughing.
You bring restoration to my soul.

This is what the Lord can do.

God, I praise you. The God of restoration. My heart is heavy for the broken. Will you bring healing? Will you turn sadness into joy today? Heal the wounded hearts? Rebuild, repair and restore your hurting people. Thank you for you great, abundant, unfathomable love for us. Thank you for what you've set out to do. Thank you for brokenness. For it is in brokenness that you can rebuild. And transform.