Tag Archives: restoration

August 12, 2025 · 5:30 AM

The Hope Of Restoration

Isaiah 35 is such a hopeful chapter in the Bible that’s full of Gods promise to us. It starts out saying, “Even the wilderness and desert will be glad in those days. The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses. Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy! The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon, as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon. There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor of our God” hNLT). This reminds us that God will cause the barren season and places in our life will become places of beauty. I believe God uses the wilderness to reveal Himself to us more clearly.

The next verse says, “With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees.” When we’re in a wilderness season, we need this declaration of hope to keep us going. We must remember that the place we’re in is not permanent and that God will bring beauty from the ashes of the place we’re in. He wants us to keep digging into His Word no matter how down trodden we feel, and to keep praying on our knees no matter how weak they feel. Your prayers are being heard in Heaven and a fruitful season of restoration is on the way.

This part of the beautiful promise wraps up in verse 4 by saying, “Say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.’” Divine intervention is on its way. God is going to move to set things right. It may not be today, or as soon as you would like, but it is coming. He is not distant from you, nor is He unaware of this place you’re in. The wilderness will bloom. The dry places will flow with water. There will be growth and beauty again. Take strength and encouragement from these verses today. You have the promise and hope of restoration coming.

Photo by Jack Deng on Unsplash

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 1, 2024 · 5:32 AM

Rest And Restoration

What do you think if when you hear the word “rest?” Most of us think of sleep or vacation, but have you ever woke up tired or returned from vacation needing another one? Rest comes in many forms because there are many types of rest we need. Yes, those two are big components of rest, but you also need mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social and sensory rest. Taking breaks, being alone, doing a digital detox, sitting quietly and meditating on God’s Word are all forms of rest. Getting rest isn’t just a physical need, but all these other parts of you need it as well, because you are not just a physical being. I once heard someone say that you can’t have restoration without rest. Think about that for a moment.

The Bible is full of people who rested and received benefits from it. God demonstrated the need for rest at the very beginning of the Bible. When He was finished with creation, He rested. Then, on Mount Sinai, He commanded that we take a sabbath as well. The word “sabbath” means to stop or cease. God gave Adam rest and created Eve. When Elijah was depressed, God sent him on a journey and had him rest. It was while Jacob was resting that he saw the ladder to heaven. After a long day of teaching parables, Jesus rested in the boat. The Bible also mentions several times where He went away from the crowds to a secluded place and found rest while He got alone with the Father.

There’s even the time He taught the disciples to rest. Mark 6:31 says, “Then Jesus said, ‘Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.’ He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat” (NLT). Jesus knew there was still work to be done where they were, and He still took them away. They could have continued to make an impact, but it would be short lived without rest. Have you ever been so busy, you didn’t have time to eat? I’m guilty of that. Ever been so busy you didn’t have time to pray or read the Bible? Have you been glued to your phone or computer? It’s time to set boundaries and build rest into your schedule for the different parts of who you are. Spiritual, mental, emotional and physical restoration is available with rest.

Photo by Mike Newbry on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 11, 2024 · 5:30 AM

A Season Of Restoration

Over a decade ago fires ravaged through Texas after a long summer drought. I know people who lost their houses, their cars and heirlooms. They were left with the charred remains of their property and their lives. It was devastating for so many. However, I remember driving through some of the burned areas the following spring. Trees that had been burned up had fresh shoots growing out of them. Flowers began to peek through the ashes on the ground. It was a beautiful sight to see as this new life began to spring up through all the devastation. I’ll never forget how the green was juxtaposed against the black everywhere. I immediately thought of the Scripture in Isaiah 61:3 that says God gives beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

If you don’t know, Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It’s the story of a man who lost everything in a day. His kids were killed in an accident, his livelihood was stolen by raiders and his food was destroyed in a storm. Just about everything unimaginable happened in an instant. The rest of the book is conversations between he and his friends looking for answers, looking to blame someone and questioning God. Then God shows up reminding them that we won’t always have the answers here because we don’t understand God’s ways. Then God restores what was taken from him because of his faithfulness in the time of devastation. It’s incredible that the first book written in the Bible is about pain and loss while revealing God’s restorative nature.

Job 14:7-9 says, “There is hope for a tree that has been cut down; it can come back to life and sprout. Even though its roots grow old, and its stump dies in the ground, with water it will sprout like a young plant” (GNT). You may feel like Job today as you go through an unimaginable situation, pain or loss. You may look around your life and only see the burnt remains of what was everything you held dear. I’m here today to remind you of the restorative nature of God. What looks like an end is really a beginning. What looks like devastation is actually fertile soil for new life and growth. There is hope. God can create life in areas that have lain dormant and dead for years. He will give you beauty for your ashes, joy for your mourning and a garment of praise for your spirit of heaviness. You’re entering a season of restoration.

Photo by Tugce Gungormezler on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 8, 2023 · 5:45 AM

Giving God Your Ashes

A friend of mine, who has a green thumb, reached out to me recently. She said she had reached out to several people asking what kind of fire place they had. When everyone had a gas fireplace, she remembered that I have a BBQ pit. She then said, “I have a strange request. Can I have your ashes?” I told her that I had just smoked some meat recently and that she was welcome to the ashes. Then I asked why she needed ashes since it was just dust. She then told me how the oak trees in her yard were sick and how she could take the ashes from the trees I burned to make a paste that would heal her trees. I had never heard of that, but it made sense.

In the book of Ruth, there had been a famine in Israel and Naomi, along with her husband and two sons, had to move to a foreign land. When her sons grew up, her husband died. Her sons then married foreign women. About ten years later, her sins died without having kids. She decided to return to Israel and told her daughters in law to go home. Ruth decided to go with her though. When they entered Bethlehem, the people greeted Naomi (which means pleasant), but she told them to call her Mara (bitter) because she had lost everything except Ruth. That’s when Ruth realized they needed food and gleaned in Boaz’ field. Boaz married Ruth later and they had a son. The people rejoiced for Naomi and sang of her restoration and healing through Ruth and her grandson. God brought her out of the ashes and gave her new life.

Isaiah 61:3 says, “To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory” (NLT). If you’re looking at the ashes of what used to be your life, know that God can make beauty from them. He can restore your life to better than it once was. He will use the ashes to heal you and others. I’ve seen Him do it in my own life. I was left holding the ashes of everything in my life that I held dear, ready to give up, when God took the ashes and exchanged my despair for joy. The ashes of what once was are the soil God uses to create something new. Give Him your ashes and let Him create something beautiful.

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

5 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 5, 2023 · 5:30 AM

People’s Potential

Years ago I knew a man who made his living on dumpster diving. During the day, and often at night, he would drive around looking in dumpsters for things people had thrown away. He would then take them home, repair them, refinish them, and then sell them. He had an eye for breathing life into things that had been discarded, and he wasn’t too proud to go into dumpsters to get those things.

He reminded me of the gardener that Jesus told a parable about in Luke 13:6-9. The master had purchased a fig tree, and year after year, he had come to it to get figs. After a few years, he became upset. He told the gardener to chop it down because it was a waste of soil space. But the gardener replied, “Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig around it and put in some fertilizer. Then if the tree bears figs next year, so much the better; if not, then you can have it cut down’” (GNT).

Both the gardener and my friend had an ability to see potential where others saw none. They both understood that it would take work to bring about restoration, but they were both willing to do it. It makes me question how I see people. Am I like the gardener or the master? Am I looking for the potential in others, or my self? Or am I quick to discard them as useless? I think if we truly looked in the mirror, most of us are like the master, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

When I was a kid there was a song about an auction. At this auction the auctioneer held up on old, dusty broken looking violin. He asked who would give him a dollar for it. Then a man walked up, dusted it off, tuned it, and began to play. When he finished playing, the auction asked, “One give me one thousand. Who’ll make it two?” The people asked what made the change, and he answered, “It was the tough of the master’s hand.” There’s no one that God can’t touch, repair, use and increase their value to others.

Photo by Johann Siemens on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

January 21, 2022 · 5:33 AM

Restoring What’s Broken

Because of sin, every one of us are born into this world with brokenness. It takes a different form in each of us, and the longer we live, the more brokenness we can experience. Different interactions and circumstances can cause that brokenness to spread and effect more parts of our lives. It began in the Garden of Eden, but so did the cure. God promised to restore our relationship with Him by sending us His only Son. Even though that’s primarily what we think of Him restoring, He’s capable of restoring so much more than our broken relationship with Him. He wants to restore every part of your life.

Here are some Bible verses on the things God can restore.

1. I have suffered much, O Lord; restore my life again as you promised.

Psalms 119:107 NLT

2. But you, O Lord, are always my shield from danger; you give me victory and restore my courage.

Psalm 3:3 GNT

3. Restore our fortunes, Lord, as streams renew the desert.

Psalms 126:4 NLT

4. Restore joy to your loving servant once again, for all I am is yours, O God.

Psalms 86:4 TPT

5. This prayer made in faith will heal the sick; the Lord will restore them to health, and the sins they have committed will be forgiven.

James 5:15 GNT

This is a small sampling of things listed in the Bible that He restores. Ask Him to restore your broken places today.

Photo by Geetanjal Khanna on Unsplash

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 5, 2021 · 5:30 AM

Restoring The Broken

Being a father of a boy with toys means that I have to always have superglue on hand. I can’t tell you how many times he’s handed me toys that were broken in pieces. With tears in his eyes, “Can you fix this please?” Sometimes I can do it, and other times I have to tell him that it’s beyond my ability to repair. He doesn’t understand why there are some things that are just too broken and superglue just won’t work.

Like him, many times we have to take the broken pieces of our lives to God and ask Him to fix it. I don’t know if God has some kind of spiritual superglue or what, but I do know that He’s pretty good at taking our broken pieces and putting them back together again. In fact, there’s no life so broken that it’s beyond His ability to repair. He specializes in putting our shattered pieces back together and making our life better than it was. We just have to be willing to hand Him the pieces.

Here are some Bible verses on God repairing our broken pieces and making us whole again.

1. GOD made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to GOD ’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. GOD rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes.
Psalm 18:20-24 MSG

2. He heals the broken-hearted and bandages their wounds.
Psalm 147:3 GNT

3. A Message from Israel’s GOD -of-the-Angel-Armies: “When I’ve turned everything around and brought my people back, the old expressions will be heard on the streets: ‘ GOD bless you!’… ‘O True Home!’… ‘O Holy Mountain!’ All Judah’s people, whether in town or country, will get along just fine with each other. I’ll refresh tired bodies; I’ll restore tired souls.”
Jeremiah 31:23-25 MSG

4. But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.
Isaiah 53:5 GNT

5. For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us! He’ll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
Isaiah 9:6 MSG

I’m taking my annual sabbatical from writing this week. I hope you enjoyed this previously written devotional.

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 2, 2021 · 5:55 AM

People Of Restoration

Have you ever made a mistake or messed up? Ever have anyone not let you forget it? It’s bad enough that we all make mistakes, but it’s worse when it’s public and we can’t live it down. Sometimes it makes you the butt of other people’s jokes, and sometimes it’s what keeps you from getting ahead. Each time you try to advance, there’s someone holding that over your head reminding you of that one time you messed up and that’s why they can’t trust you. It can be frustrating to be in that position, but I think it’s worse to be the person who is holding another person’s mistake against them. Grace is something we all expect from others, but rarely give someone else. We judge others by their mistakes, but want them to judge our mistakes by our intentions. It’s time we implemented the Golden Rule when it comes to mistakes people make.

Can you imagine how Peter felt when he publicly denied Jesus a couple of hours after saying he would never do that? Luke 22:61 says that when Peter denied Jesus a third time, Jesus turned and looked at him. How do you come back from that? It’s no wonder Peter wanted to go back to his old life after Jesus was crucified. He was so used to people holding his mistakes against him that he thought being the Rock of the Church was out the window. I love that Jesus introduced him to grace and asked him three times if he loved Him. It took a while for Jesus to get through to him that his mistake had been overlooked and that Jesus wouldn’t dwell on it. He restored the friendship in that conversation and reinstated Peter’s future. Jesus didn’t just do that for Peter’s benefit. He was giving us a model to emulate.

Proverbs 17:9 says, “Love overlooks the mistakes of others, but dwelling on the failures of others devastates friendships” (TPT). Who do you need to release today? Who’s failure have you been dwelling on and holding it against them? If Jesus hasn’t held your past mistakes against you, how can you hold someone’s against them? We are people of restoration. We are people of forgiveness. It’s time we began to live like that instead of the way our flesh wants us to live. Holding someone’s past against them makes you the warden and them your prisoner, but love overlooks the mistakes of others. If we’re to be known for our love, we’re to be known for letting go of people’s past mistakes.

Side note: We’re also to be people who are wise as serpents and harmless as doves. It doesn’t mean we give them full access and carte blanche. Use wisdom in providing a way forward to rebuild trust and to help them advance rather than to hold them in one place forever. We are Biblically called to forgive everyone, but not necessarily to reconcile with everyone. There’s a difference. Forgiveness frees them and you from the mistake. Reconciliation restores the relationship. Sometimes forgiveness is all you can do, and that’s ok.

Thanks to Jachan DeVol @jachan_devol for making this photo available freely on Unsplash

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 12, 2017 · 5:26 AM

Homesick


Have you ever been homesick? Or maybe you’ve been traveling or have been out and about, and just wanted to get home. Home is where we relax, unwind, and rid ourselves of our cares. It’s where we dress down and are our most true selves. It’s the place that smells the most familiar to us, and it’s where we truly rest. They even say that home is where the heart is. I think Dorthy had it right, there’s no place like home!

I recently went through “How’s Your Soul?” by Judah Smith. One of his first points is that while we are good at having that place called home for ourselves, our soul is looking for home as well. When God created man, he was loveless until God breathed into his nostrils. Judah says that our soul is really borrowed breath from God, and that it finds its home when we use that breath to praise God. That’s why worshiping God makes our soul feel the way it does. It’s when our soul gets to be home.

Think about David for a minute. He was chased by Saul for years. He lived in caves in one of the most inhospitable places on earth. If you’ve read the Psalms, you know that man was homesick both physically and spiritually. He longed for the courts of the Lord as much as he longed for being home. He even said that it was better to spend one day in God’s house than thousands elsewhere (Psalm 84:10). Why? Because that’s where his soul was at home. Even if he couldn’t physically be home, he wanted to have his soul at home.

I believe all of us are the same way. Our soul longs to be home. I think we misinterpret the signals inside a lot of times, especially if our soul has never been home. In Psalm 90:1, David wrote, “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!” (NLT) If your soul is homesick, God is where you’ll find the peace you’re looking for. In Him is where you will find your truest self, and that place where you can rest. You don’t have to be homesick anymore. Spend time with God worshipping Him and loving Him today and let your soul be at home.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 7, 2017 · 5:21 AM

Renovations And Transformations 

Throwback Thursday is a new feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.


Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

I watch a lot of home improvement shows on the weekends. It seems my tuner is locked on HGTV when Saturday rolls around. I like watching how they transform spaces. Some require major work where they tear everything out and others are mainly painting and getting the right furniture in the right place. Before moving walls though, they always check to see if it is a load bearing wall. Some walls run perpendicular to the boards that hold up your roof and some run in the same line. If you take out the perpendicular ones (load bearing) that section of the roof can cave in. 

When I think about my life, I’ve got a lot of walls up. I’ve got some in place to separate portions of my life from the other portions. I’ve got some up because I’ve been hurt and I don’t want that pain again. I’ve got some up where I hide all the junk I have in my life as well. Each of us have walls up in our lives whether we like to admit it or not. We build them to keep people and even God out of portions of our lives. We don mind letting them in certain rooms, but we don’t like to let them into our junk closet. 

Just like in a real house, some of those walls are load bearing and some are not. I’ve been thinking about what walls I’ve let God take down when He’s tried to do a remodel. I’ve given Him access to certain things and haven’t given Him permission to do others. I’ve let Him take out some of the non load bearing walls in my life. But like in a renovation, sometimes those walls have to come down in order to do what the master designer wants to do. One thing I’ve noticed is the more permissions or access they grant the hosts on those TV shows, the greater the outcome of the renovation.

In my own life, I want the amazing transformation that renovation can bring. I want to be stunned when I open my eyes and see what God has done with my life. In order for that to happen, I’ve got to give Him permission to tear down my load bearing walls. I’ve got to give Him access to every part of my house. I can’t keep anything hidden from Him. Our walls really don’t keep God out of those areas of our life and He really doesn’t need our permission to do things in our lives. I’ve learned that it helps my attitude in the renovation when I give those things to Him. It prepares me for the changes that are coming.

What walls have you put up to keep others or God out? Have you only given Him permission to knock down the non load bearing walls? What kind of transformation or renovation would you like? The greater one you want, the greater permission you need to give to Him. Just like at the end of those shows where people drop to their knees in awe of what has been done to their house, God can make that kind of renovation with your life. He can move walls, take out the mold of sin, repurpose your past, and create something beautiful out of your life if you let Him.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,