Keys to Restoration I

‘Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You’ Ps.51:12.

After plugging the leaks that lead to losses, the next step is to deploy the keys to restoration. Then you can be confident that your restoration will be permanent. The first key to restoration is Repentance. Repentance starts when you recognize you are in sin and ends when you change your ways. Repentance is not just saying sorry alone. Repentance is turning around and working with the Holy Spirit to stay in right standing with God [Ps.51]. You cannot experience joy without repentance. Without repentance, there cannot be restoration. Check where you have gone wrong [character flaw or disobedience] and settle it with God. When it comes to eternity, you can’t have access to God without first repenting. ‘What is more important than your salvation? What else will matter a hundred years from now’ [Quote by James McDonald]. Pause and calmly think about this. You don’t just get to points like this and walk away. Get it right with God. What else will matter a hundred years from now? Access the things you are struggling with, the things you are trading your purity for, the things making you unhappy, the things bringing stress in your marriage and in your family. Then ask yourself, will it matter a hundred years from now. When you get this right, you are better able to put things in proper perspective. Then you start to see things the way God sees them – temporal or eternal. Repentance has to be genuine. It is the heart that God cares about most. When repentance happens genuinely with God, particularly when you are accepting Christ, you become a new person all together [2Cor.5:17]. Salvation is focused on who you are not what you did. People refuse to be Christians because of what it requires. Salvation’s purpose is who you become in Christ Jesus.  You are a Christian because of who you have become not what you do or don’t do. Being saved is when you repent and accept Christ. Then you get power over sin [Jude 1:24] God wants to change us.

Thought: Examine your heart and talk to God about all the Holy Spirit points out to you.

Prayer: Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to Your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor You [ps.86:11]. Restore Your joy in my heart, in Jesus Name.