In Psalm 23:3a we read ‘He restores my soul’, let’s unpack the idea of restoration and see God’s heart in the word ‘restore’.
We desperately need to know that Father God is so much more about restoration than punishment. The wages (and consequences) of sin is death, but the Lord wants us to receive His life and restoration via repentance and belief in the Lord.
The word restore means ‘to return someone or something to a former good condition, place, or position.’
If we think about cars and furniture, two things you often hear about as being restored. At some point in the past, every car and every piece of furniture was brand new. But, with use and wear’n’tear, they will become worn out and sometimes degrade into a state of disrepair.
If they aren’t restored, they often end up in the Sims scrap metal yard or the rubbish dump left to rust and rot away.
The are skilled people who restore old cars and furniture. We have seen rust buckets turned into show cars (with some significant TLC). We have seen restoration shows on TV where rotting furniture is brought back to life and use by the hands of a skilled restorer. Jesus is the ultimate restorer.
Sometimes Christians fall into a useless state due to sin and failures. Long after the joy and zeal of knowing Jesus has faded, and after we’ve allowed sin to cripple us, we find ourselves in need of restoration. Sadly, once we reach this point, we often allow Satan to accuse us and shame us into thinking we could never be of any use to God’s kingdom. ‘Look at you,’ he says. ‘What good are you? You’ve sinned/failed/crashed, you haven’t followed, and you’re worthless. God will never use you again.’
I’ve been there. We’ve all probably been there.
Thankfully and graciously the Lord doesn’t see things this way. In John 21:15-19 we see the restoration of Peter after he did what he said he would not, that is he denied the Lord.
Jesus can and does restore the worst of us to a brand new life, holiness and usefulness. I’m totally convinced that the Lord desires for those of us who’ve failed, slipped, messed up, and crashed to live completely restored lives.
In John 21 Jesus asks Peter three times ‘Do you love me?’. The the first two time Jesus asks Peter, the Greek word for love is agape, i.e. Do you love me with God’s sort of selfless love. Most of us understand this.
The third time Jesus asks Peter He uses the Greek word phileo or do you love me as a brother. My Australian paraphrase of this is ‘Are you my best mate?’.
This is really important to understand.
Most of us get the idea of God’s sort of sacrificial selfless agape love; but the Lord also wants us as His best mate! He wants us in a relationship of intimacy, love, meaning, and hope.
In our culture we understand what a best mate is; it is the person we can trust in everything, we can rely on our best mate, our best mate will be there when we are in trouble, and they will be with us when we celebrate high points in life. Jesus is, and wants to be, our best mate.
We need to have both sorts of love. First the sacrificial selfless agape love of the Lord. Secondly, a deep relational ‘best mates’ kind of love. The Lord has our back at all times, He is there even when we have crashed and burned. He never leaves us even when we turn our back on Him. He always wants to restore our souls.
When our love is flowing in the ocean of His love we are restored. It is only in His love that we can be restored.
My prayer is that we all would simply turn to Him and receive His love and let Him work whatever is needed to change us to be more like Him.
Hi Kym,
Its a good word, I’ve been there too and it made me think that sometimes the furniture or car are just worn out, they’ve lost their lustre or shine from sheer hard work. The car’s motor can sound sick and spluttering because it needs a tune up.
Many Christians get burned out physically, emotionally and spiritually – their body is just worn out and they need time out and God can seem far away and they feel useless because they’re not doing anything.
Thankfully the Father does draw us beside the still waters where we find rest for our souls – enter His Rest where He restores our souls and teaches again to abide in His love – Father’s love that never gives up on us.
I like what you said that God is our best mate!