Pray for Restoration

 

    Prayer is vital for a fulfilled life.  It is not a monologue.  It is a conversation with God.  When you are struggling with things in life (and we all do), it is time to dig deep in prayer.  Stay in the prayer until you work it out, even it if it takes week, months, or years.  Don't let up on that prayer.  That includes restoration.  Until you feel alive again, don't stop asking God to restore you.

    God knows you.  He knows what is bothering your soul, body, and mind.  He knows your disgrace, illness, and confliction.  He knows that you inherited sin that you may be fighting so hard that it is consuming all your energy.  He sees your weariness.  

    If all this is due to judgment or a punishment, then remember that He promised a time frame on all His punishments.   If you are in pain, suffering, in any form of slavery, disrespected, in despair, or mourning, then remember that God is right there with you.  Your sick heart can be healed.    No one in life goes without something that scathes them and needs to be healed.

    Eternal exile is different.  It is not a punishment.  It is judgment for rejecting God.  You exile yourself because He gave you a way out.  It is woeful for the heart to grow faint without hope.   It is never what God wanted.  It saddens Him as you chose sin over deliverance and restoration.

    Don't turn to other people to carry your burden for you.  They have their own burdens.  They can't carry yours for very long too.  God reigns forever, yet He has not forgotten you for one second.  He is there to help you with your burden and sometimes take it away.  

    No matter how far you have pushed Him away, walked away, or pretended He was not there, you can still go to Him.  Return to Him no matter the challenge and be restored.  If He is angry trust that His anger will fade when you truly repent.  There is no reason to go another day without any comfort.

Lamentations 5