Restore

God wants you to experience peace. A deep, settled peace. An unexplainable peace. A continual peace that is experienced every day. A peace that is felt all the way to heaven. That peace can only be delivered by Yahweh Shalom. Let me set the context for today’s passage.

We live in a broken world in need of healing. Sometimes restoration is necessary between two people whose friendship has been damaged, or from a dating relationship where infatuation turned to disillusionment turned to rejection, or a husband and wife whose relationship has fallen on hard times. Sometimes, we need emotional healing when a hurt drives us to discouragement, even despair. Today, let me introduce you to Yahweh Rapha.

Sometimes, a fresh start calls for leaving behind the things that were our identity. That’s what happened to a man Jesus called from a tax booth.

Christian love is both vertical and horizontal. It starts with our love for God. This love is established by our “obedience to the truth” of the gospel. The resulting new birth purifies us from the inside out. This love begins and ends in God. We love him only because he first loved us (1 John 4:19). Here’s how Peter explains it.

As we move through the week of Christmas, we are focusing on Jesus, the One Isaiah described as the “Prince of Peace.” 

Thank God for his great grace.

God loves us enough to restore us.

His arms are open wide. He is ready to forgive and restore. But you have to come back home.

God loves us so much that He will not allow us to live far from Him in a land of spiritual danger.