A Prayer For Restoration

“Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.” - Hosea 6:1 NKJV 

The moment sin reared its ugly head, in the form of a snake, in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, brokenness entered the scene. Undoubtedly, we live in a broken world full of broken systems, situations, and people. Sin leaves a ripple effect that continues year after year, generation after generation. It affects every individual. You cannot walk through life unscathed.

This is no different for Christians as it is for non-Christians. Matthew 5:45 says, "…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Just because we are Christians doesn't mean we are exempt from trials and heartache. We Sometimes we've chosen a destructive path. Other times, God makes us dwell in darkness (Lamentations 3:6). It’s not uncommon to forget God can still restore you when you're in the muck and the mire of a trial. Our situations sometimes cloud our view of all God is. 

I don't know what you may be facing today, but I want to remind you God is still in the business of restoring! He can still restore a broken relationship, shattered marriage, limp body, prodigal child, tattered heart, and scrambled mind. With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). God doesn't always restore the things we have in mind. Instead, He restores our peace, joy, hope, and contentment, despite our uncertain situations. Regardless of what God chooses, He still restores!

In addition to this, let's never forget God has the final say. When He speaks, the storm is silent, the seas part, the lame are healed, and the blind see. He has the authority over everything because He is the creator of all things. If you're going through a tough season, keep pouring your heart out to God. He is not weary of your tears. He knows the words you cannot seem to utter. He sees the pain no one else can see. But also remind yourself God can still do exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). 

Let's pray:
Dear Father,

Thank You for Your fatherly care for us. Father, nothing is hidden from You. You know what each one of Your kids is going through. Father, when we are in the thick of a trial and feel too broken to be of use, would You remind us You still work all things together for good? Remind us You have good plans for our lives — that You are our hope and future. Please hold all our broken pieces together and keep us close to You. 

Father, You see everything. You see behind every closed door. You hear every whispered comment. You know what no one else may know. Please be our advocate. Please fight for us when we cannot fight for ourselves. Please be our shield and our protector. Please restore to us the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25). Father, I ask that You would make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil" (Psalm 90:15). I ask that if we are in a season of weeping, that joy will come in the morning (Psalm 30:5). Father, I ask that You would restore us to the joy of our salvation and uphold us with your generous Spirit (Psalm 51:12).

Father, we need You. We are lost without You. We know that apart from You, there is no good in us. Please do not forsake the works of Your hands (Psalm 138:8). the Father, help us to be patient during the season You have us in. I pray we will look more like You in everything we do and say. Thank You for loving us. Thank You for being a God who restores. Amen! 

Written By: Christine Perry 

Source: Crosswalk.com

Work For The Lord

Work for the Lord

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” - Colossians 3:23 NIV

The drawer precariously teetered as I put my daughter’s laundry away. Let’s just say I was not thinking positive thoughts about her as I pulled crumpled piles of shirts out to re-fold. Out of the corner of my eye, a colorful card she had attached to her mirror caught my eye. It read:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart …”

It reminds her to connect the motivations of her heart to the goals she sets in life, and I was reminded to go easy on her for the crumpled-up piles of shirts.

The motivation behind our motions matters. In all things, we are called to work hard for the glory of God. When we are timid about our talents and doubtful of our dreams, God calls us we to have confidence in his purposes. If he sets out to accomplish something in our lives through the gifts, dreams and talents he has planted in us, there is nothing that will stop him. Thoughts like, I can’t do this, and this is impossible can steal the full life God intends to bless us with.

Sometimes I fear I miss the point of the full life Jesus died to give me, and instead allow the enemy to kill, steal, and destroy the good things God is working in my life. (John 10:10) I find myself complaining about how hard motherhood is, instead of embracing the gift I prayed so long for… to be a mom! My full calendar can cause a flood of anxiety, but I pray daily for community!

God is calling us to a higher mentality and work ethic by using the analogy of slavery in Colossians 3:23. When Paul wrote this letter, slavery was not the oppressive form we rightly fight to end, but a state of servanthood. It did not discriminate ethnically, nor was the servant to be degraded by their master. In fact, slaves were often freed after ten years. People could choose to work off a debt to a creditor via servitude.

Paul’s prose challenged both slave and master to see past themselves and work for the Lord, in fairness and justice. God is judge. He knows our motives. When we work for the Lord with all we have, the dreams we chase after and talents we hone lead us to “more than we can ask for or imagine.” Our goals and dreams do more than accomplish Kingdom purposes, they sanctify our souls! We are not only blessed by the favor of God on this earth, but rewarded in heaven! 

Our actions on this earth do not affect our eternal status as believers in Christ. We cannot, in any way, earn our salvation by anything we do on this earth. But God notices our obedience and hard work… and he faithfully blesses and rewards us, here and in heaven.

In the grit of every journey, God encourages us. Jesus, in the Parable of the Talents, told of the servant who wisely invested his Talents: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21 NIV) It’s a joy to work for the Kingdom of God. 

If we are working with all of our hearts, for God’s glory over our own, he will fully achieve the purpose he has willed for our lives. Trust him, it is good.

Written By: Meg Bucher

Source: Crosswalk

Unexpected Justice

If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

Leviticus 24:19-20

Some of us may be tempted to stumble over this sort of statement in the Bible, viewing it as too harsh and vengeful. However, this Old Testament principle is not about gaining unlimited retribution against an enemy. Rather, it is intended to ensure that the punishment for a crime matches, and doesn’t supersede, the damage done. It is a protection against going over the top in vengeance while making sure that justice is rendered.

Many parts of the world are bemused by Western culture’s failure to match the crime with the punishment. For example, imagine that somebody steals millions of dollars through an elaborate, decades-long scheme. After months of going through the legal system, that person will probably be sentenced to many years in prison. And yet the countless victims of the crime are still without their money. From Scripture’s perspective, the criminal should have to work hard until they have paid back to everyone what has been taken. In that way, the punishment would match the crime.

For justice to be served, punishment must take place. And everyone longs for justice of this kind, deep down. Discussing the need in films and dramas for a satisfying ending for flawed protagonists, Sara Colleton, an executive television producer, commented, “Whether you want to call it retribution, which is slightly too biblical for my taste, there is some need for moral judgment that accumulates with these characters, which they cannot escape.”[1]

The fact that we know justice needs to be done is an indication that we were created by God as moral beings. We all exist with an internal awareness of “oughtness,” no matter how much some might try to deny it.

In the Bible, however, ultimate justice is delivered in a completely unexpected way that satisfies not only our desire for justice but our desire for acceptance. Though we are the criminals deserving judgment, someone else took all our rags of moral unrighteousness, corruption, and religious indifference. The fitting punishment for our crime was death—yet Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bore that punishment in our place and instead clothed us with the credentials necessary to live as His ambassadors and die as His friends.

If you have laid hold of those righteous robes, never forget that you don’t deserve them. Today, rejoice anew in God’s grace. His righteous vengeance has been satisfied through Christ. As you have done, so it was done to Jesus. His punishment fit your crime. And so now your Judge gathers you up in His loving embrace and calls you His child. The Christian can never be anything other than deeply humble, and yet the Christian need never feel anything other than secure and loved.

Written By: Alistair Begg

Source: Crosswalk.com

The Salvation Equation

I’ve taken many missions trips to the great state of Utah. Our high school and adult evangelistic teams have had the opportunity to talk with many Latter Day Saints (LDS) as well as Christian believers about the nature of salvation. Many of our conversations centered on the relationship between faith and works, and, in this way, Christianity is unique in its characterization of salvation as the free gift of God:

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

This concept of grace is missing in Mormonism (as it has been classically described by LDS prophets and Mormon scripture). In fact, many of the Mormon believers we talked with described Christians as people who consistently take advantage of “cheap grace.” One member of the LDS church told us, “Christians say a prayer, get ‘saved’ and then run out and live like hell. They don’t think it’s important to obey the commandments.”

At times, in an effort to emphasis the free nature of salvation, many Christians minimize the importance of good works in the Christian life. We sometimes neglect to tell our LDS friends that a grateful life, surrendered in response to what Christ has done for us, does actually result in a life of good works. The passage in Ephesians provides us with an important tool that can help us make this distinction. If you divide this verse in the middle, you’ll find faith and salvation on one side of the verse and works on the other:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith // not by works, so that no one can boast.

This verse provides us with a simple equation that can help us remember a life transformed by the saving grace of God produces good works, even though good works are not what save us:

The Christian equation:
Salvation + Faith = Works

The Non-Christian equation:
Faith + Works = Salvation

The question is not whether someone performs good works, but why someone performs good works. Both Christian and non-Christian believers have a place for good works in their respective equations. Works are not missing from the Christian calculation, but, for us, good works are the result of our gratitude for (and recognition of) what God has done.

When we realize that our own efforts are utterly impotent, we begin to understand the gift that God has given us. When we understand what God has done for us, we can’t help but be humbled and grateful. A grateful life, ever reflective of the depth of God’s kindness, results in a surrendered response. We can’t help but want to live differently.

When I first understood the gift I had been given, the people I worked with began to notice something had changed. I was still afraid to tell them about my radical conversion, but it was quickly obvious. If each of my coworkers had been given a calendar, they could have estimated the day of my conversion based on the obvious change in my behavior. I wasn’t full of the same sarcasm and anger. I wasn’t as vulgar. I wasn’t as cynical. I was different.

Good works appeared in their proper place in my life as a new Christian: On the right side of the Christian equation. They were not the means by which I was saved, but simply the evidence I had gratefully received God’s free gift of salvation.

Written By: J. Warner Wallace

Source: Breakpoint 

[Editor’s Note: This was originally published at Cold Case Christianity.]

J. Warner Wallaceis a Cold-Case Detective, Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Adj. Professor of Apologetics at Biola University, author of Cold-Case Christianity, God’s Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith, and creator of the Case Makers Academyfor kids.

Healing Bible Verses

Browse a collection of healing scriptures to find comfort and reassurance that God will be there in times of despair and suffering.

The Word of God can be your source of refuge and endurance when you are overwhelmed with health problems, bad news, or relationship struggles. This collection of scriptures on healing can provide encouragement, strength, and comfort as you trust in God's healing power.

Download your own personal copy of Healing Bible Verses HERE. Print these and take them with you throughout the day and keep them by your bedside to remind yourself of the healing power and comfort available to you!

Top Bible Verses about Healing

Jeremiah 17:14 - Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

Jeremiah 33:6 - Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.

1 Peter 2:24 - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.

Psalm 41:3 - The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

Psalm 147:3 - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Proverbs 17:22 - A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

James 5:15 - And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

3 John 1:2 - Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

Short Prayer for Healing - "Father, help me to keep my focus on You when the pain and hurt are overwhelming. Help me be faithful and see the good and blessings surrounding me. Please strengthen my mind, heart, and body, and heal me today. May the Holy Spirit guide me in peace and comfort. Amen."

Source: Crosswalk