five minutes friday: restore

Oh, come on...

That word, for five minutes, seriously?

http://fiveminutefriday.com/2018/06/14/fmf-link-up-restore/

That’s a word for life, not for five minutes.

RESTORE can look like an endless process, not very cute and cozy at times.

Sure, that is what our God loves to do, but not without any participation on our part. Like those guys and a prophet, who were restoring Jerusalem walls. They built all day and stood on guard all night, despite the Lord was with them and fighting for them.

A friend compared that RESTORE work inside a heart to making a renewal in a home and having to carry all kinds of trash from the inside out.

It's a tiresome work. It’s discouraging at times - especially when you see all that's coming from the inside of you is trash... But it’s not endless. The more trash out – the more space there is for RESTORE. Even if one can’t recall anything worthy to be restored – God is making something new and beautiful out of nothing. 

And when it feels like things are going worse rather than better, it's comforting to know that “The walls you are rebuilding are never out of my sight. Your builders are faster than your wreckers.” (somewhere from Isaiah)

*the end of five minutes*

Going to watch “MissingPersons” with A21 tonight - A21.org/10

 

When working in the aftercare, I witnessed a lot of RESTORE in the lives of women rescued from trafficking.

Witnessed is what I call it, because most of the times, it seems the only thing I did was I got to witness, to be there, to walk with them, while they were doing all the hard work of restoration, inside and out, day and night. Some people said I must be a very strong person for doing that kind of social work, but I really wasn't. It is those girls, who must be very strong persons, to survive and not give up and dare to RESTORE.

And with all the supernatural God's power, it is still incredibly hard work. RESTORE is not what you normally see working in a shelter in every regular day. Or better to say, RESTORE is often hard for us to see in every work day, behind all the struggles, backslides, unending needs, tiredness, stupid paperwork, failures and helplessness... but it is there. Never out of His sight.

As I think back to what my friend said about taking the trash from the inside out, I realize there is so much more RESTORE that happens inside. It can be hard to notice, even harder to measure, impossible to show in TIP reports and stats. And yet that's what matters most in a long run.

I treasure all the ways God allowed me to witness the restored. It helped to see the struggle worth it and gave courage to keep fighting, not only in A21 work. But I guess we can also be encouraged and hopeful and keep fighting, knowing about those restored we don't get to see. 

Until we come home ;)

Restored, beyond what people believe is possible to restore.