by: Pamela L. Johnson
“I Shall Restore You”
Jeremiah 29:10-14
In this life we are faced with one disappointment after the next. We find that in the face of our disappointments it’s coupled with heartbreak and pain. We look around in wonder of all the time we have spent, wasted or lost. How many years have gone by, how much time has passed? Am I any closer to my dreams and hopes than I was yesterday? When will all the things I’ve lost ever be restored?
Time is precious an unchanging. Money can be restored. Property can be restored, broken down cars, stripped paintings, and old houses all can be restored. Relationships can be restored. But one thing that we can’t reach back and alter or change is time. But regardless of our control of time God said, I shall restore you.
In this passage of scripture the prophet is warning the people of what is about to come. He is warning them of the calamity they are about to face. He is letting them know; hey this is going to happen so you might want to get ready. The prophet is giving them a heads up. How awesome of God we serve that will warn you before he afflicts you? They were walking in grace and probably didn’t even notice it.
So many of us have gotten the same type of warnings from the Lord and didn’t heed his warning. When trouble came we cried out to God asking Him why this has come upon us. When the Spirit is saying I tried to warn you and you didn’t listen. Bless God for grace!
There are three things I would like to point out in the midst of these verses that will bless you. The first thing is if God is going to restore you there has to first be an interruption.
The children of Israel found themselves heading back into captivity. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness from being delivered from Egypt, they didn’t learn. They were still a stiff neck, ungrateful and disobedient people. Things had settled down they felt that they were living the dream. Doing whatever they felt they were big enough and grown enough to do. No need to consider the consequences of any of the actions because God wasn’t going to do anything. All He ever does is fuss and say He is but He never does. We don’t have to worry about His wrath because He’s all talk…
Does that sound like anyone you know? They test and try the hand of God because He has be merciful they take His patience as a weakness. They take His silence as if He is unaware. They push and push until He one day decides to stop or change what you currently been doing. That smooth easy street that you were once on has now become rocky. He interrupts what you had going on and changes the direction completely. There’s an interruption in your life. It’s like talking on your cellphone and forgot you didn’t pay the bill. Right in the middle of a very good juicy conversation your phone goes dead. They cellular network and your ability to communicate with anyone other than your carrier has become out of your control. You soon realize that your services have been interrupted.
When interruptions come into our lives that we weren’t expecting or planned for, they really get our attention. They give us cause to pay very close attention to what we should have been paying attention to before. The children of Israel’s lives were interrupted once again as they were headed back into bondage but this time in Babylon. They were faced with a 70 year stay or interruption because they failed to heed the warning from the Lord. But God is an awesome God that even when there’s an interruption He said, I shall restore you.
The second thing is if God is going to restore you, you must seek Him with invigoration.
Invigorate is to give strength or energy to something. You have some activity or life in what you are doing. God said that when I come to see about you after 70 years, you’re going to be so thrilled to see me that you’re going to do it with so much life. You will call Me and I will answer you. You will seek Me or look for me and you will find Me but only after you search for Me with all your heart. When you put all you have into wanting to be in my presence. When you pour out every drop of pride, disobedience, strife, hatred, malice and seek Me with vigor. When you’re no longer satisfied with the mundane and status quo and use every ounce of energy you have then you will find Me.
God is seeking for a people that will not be satisfied until they are in His presences. A people that live and breathe just to be at His feet. A people that will earnestly search for Him when He seems distant or far away. He’s looking for those people. Are your in the number? Are you one that finds it invigorating to seek Him and you find Him? He wants you to be His people and He wants to be your God, but you want put your heart in it. He wants to restore you but you’re lazy. If your restoration was based on how much energy you put into praying and seeking Him, will you ever be restored? He wants to restore you…
Finally if God is going to restore you there will be an intervention.
A&E had a TV series called Intervention. The focus of the show was around individuals that were dealing with some sort of addition. These individuals believed that they were being filmed for a documentary on their problem when in fact it was being documented in the hopes of an intervention from family and/or friends. What typically happened was they were given an ultimatum; go into rehab or loose contact, income, or other privileges. They would then have to make the decision if they would accept or deny the ultimatum. The families wanted them to be restored.
Addition is something that has you bound or it controls you. The children of Israel were in bondage in Babylon. Do you think they would do well to have an intervention? They were in captivity and confined by the boundaries of Babylon. But God promised that He shall restore. He said that He would turn away their captivity and will gather them from all the nations, and from all the places that He had driven them. Then He said, I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
That’s good news today. God is going to place Himself between you and your afflictions. He’s going to change the course of the situation that you thought there was no end to. He will rebuild, recover, reestablish, revive, replace, repair, renew, and reinstate everything the enemy that he had destroyed. God is going to bring you to the place that He had promised you. He said, He knows the plans He has for you and destruction wasn’t one of them. But He plan is that you have a good life and an expected end.
What does the end look like? I’m glad you asked, well they told me that its brilliance was like that of very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It has a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, there on the north, three on the south and three on the west. That wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The foundation of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
The most glorious part is there’s no temple because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, you know why, for the glory of God gives it light and the Lamb is its lamp.
What a day will it be when we reach the end. But until the great trumpet is sound God said even today He shall restore you!!!
