Joel 2:12

The Lord said: It isn’t too late. You can still return to me with all your heart.

Today’s reading included a line that is just fantastic!

I didn’t start a countdown when I gave you the choice between life and death. There is no time limit on my love for you.

Wow, talk about powerful. We live in a world that basically says, “if you don’t come back to me within a specified time frame, I won’t be waiting.” So, we live fearful that anything with do against God will keep us from Him forever, even after forgiveness. Did you catch the last thing I wrote? Even after forgiveness…I grew up seeking approval from people…family, friends, teachers, etc. This translated into how I saw God. Now I struggle with reminding myself that He isn’t counting down how many sins I commit until I hit that magic number when He will no longer find favor me. I know I’ll still go to heaven, but I live in fear that I have lost His favor. But our God is such a kind, merciful and loving God; He says, “Come to me today, and I will do more than repair the damage done…I will restore what was lost.” Let me illustrate this for you…

When I was a little girl, I lived on an Air Force base for nearly most of my early childhood. In one of our locations, we had a house that butted up next to another house with our sheds attached to each other. My friends and I loved to play good guys and bad guys. One particular day, a good chunk of my team were “capture” by the bad guys and locked in the prison (storage shed). They must be saved! So, I rushed in to save the day, certain I would win. Unfortunately, the bad guys were laying in wait for me. Suddenly, one of them came through the door. I began backing up, telling my team mates we would be all right. I turned around and my leg got caught on the bicycle pedal (back then they were metal, not plastic) and tore a good-sized gash in my leg. Game over…I needed my dad (the doctor). He came home, cleaned me up and had to put stitches in my leg. To this day, I still have a scar. You see, I healed…my leg was repaired, but not restored…I still have the scar. God wants to do more than just repair our hearts…he wants to take that scar completely away, as if it never existed in the first place. Let me just tell you, that after all I have been through, I am finally clinging to the Scripture that says in Joel 2:25, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts.” (I will have to do another study on that for you all soon; it’s so good!) I am working on trusting that He is working to take the scars away so that I won’t live with the pain anymore.

What wounds do you have that still need to be restored?

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