(Original Airdate: Saturday, May 5, 2012.)
Show Notes
“Life Repays You” – There comes a time on the spiritual path when life begins to repay you for all your past pain and problems.
We’ve talked a lot about “brokenness” on this program and today we are going to make the shift to this question: “What happens after you are broken – then what?”
Restoration.
The 23rd Psalm (verse 3) says: “He restores my soul.”
Well what, exactly, does that mean? What does it mean to “restore?” One definition reads: “To give or bring back to the original condition or place.”
Another definition reads: “To reestablish” (I like that!)
Yet another definition reads: “To bring back to a state of health, soundness or vigor.”
“To put back to a former place or to a former position or rank.”
“To give back; make return or restitution of (anything taken away or lost).”
In the Bible, the Lord spoke to the prophet Joel (chapter 2, verse 25), saying: “I will restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten…”
The “locusts” symbolize “the thick devouring darkness” that enters some of our lives – and overcomes us – that we often feel powerless against – that robs us of healthy perspectives and productive choices and that steals our time – that sometimes consuming darkness that calls us into depression and causes us to hate ourselves and judge ourselves and to become insecure and to engage in behaviors that cause us guilt and shame.
The “darkness” – the “locusts” – are what is referred to in that song we all love – “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost (locusts), but now I’m found, was blind (locusts), but now I see.”
So, here’s a question: “What is it in your life that you would like to see “reestablished, returned, repaid and brought back to a former state?”
Search your soul and ask yourself this question: Where in my life is my thinking causing me to mistake the facts for the truth?
Take a listen.