My God is a God of restoration. He takes what's been broken and bruised and breathes new life.
Think about it: Jesus took the blind, and gave them new eyes to see the beauty around them. Jesus took the deaf, and gave them new ears to hear laughter and music around them. Jesus took the lame, and gave them new legs to jump and dance. Wherever humanity was damaged, Jesus restored it. And thankfully, He's still doing it today.
God has been showing me throughout this whole trip about what it means to be restored. He has taken my scarred heart and filled it with His everlasting love. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26) God loves to breathe new life into our spirits. He revives us and makes us new. He restores us to the glory we were created for.
In the Garden of Eden, God created humans in His image. He created us to reflect His glory. Although our world is now clouded with shame and guilt, God ransomed us back to himself to reflect that glory once again. Jesus came to this earth and died to give us new hearts and to set us free. We no longer have to live under the stress and insecurity and fear that we have been for so long. Instead, we get to live in an ever-increasing glory. "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:4-5) We walk humbly in this glory, because we know that this glory is bestowed by the Good Father.
At one point during the trip, I was sitting on a bench at a local church. I was looking at the walls and the fading colors of the chipping paint. God spoke to me in that moment about my heart: just like the walls of the church, my heart is slowly fading and chipping away. In order for Him to apply a fresh new coat of paint, He must first sand down the old paint. That's the process I've been in for the past month or so. God has been scraping away at the old junk in my heart in order to bring restoration and renewal.
My Daddy is so good. He loves me, just because He does. Not because of anything I've done. Just because. He's taking the time to correct things in my heart in order to make me new and understand Him better. He's breaking me down. He's renewing my passion. He's restoring the glory that I was created to live in. <3
