Restore. It means to bring back or reinstate something from wrong to right. To rehabilitate, reestablish, or rebuild. Recall from Week 2 when we discussed the meaning of that little prefix, "re-". The word restore holds that same connotation of having something given back. The beautiful dance of give and respond between us and our Savior continues to unfold when we consider how He restores!

In Psalm 51, David cried out to God after moral failure, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation; and sustain me with a willing Spirit." In one translation it says, "Give me back the joy of Your salvation." If David is asking to have God's salvation back, it means he had it to begin with. You can't have something restored or given back if it was never possessed.

We live in a world where it is trendy to restore old furniture, old homes, and old cars. Some of the most popular television shows include couples buying old, run-down homes and restoring them to more beautiful versions. There is an entire store out there called Restoration Warehouse. The store is literally jam-packed from floor to ceiling with old light fixtures, doorknobs, window panes, and other fascinating treasures. But do we really understand the concept and the beauty of real restoration? When those items are purchased, does the consumer understand the value that the one item they chose could have played a part in a brand-new home for a young family? Or the importance of an old wooden and splintered front door that once hung proudly protecting the sweet grandparents, who lived at 2574 Beach Road in Port Huron, Michigan for decades while their baby-boomer children grew up?

At this point, you might be asking yourself, "How in the world do home renovations and my own personal restoration have anything to do with each other?" Well, just as it is easy for us to forget or never consider the value those old pieces of furniture or fixtures had before we decided to restore them, many of us have no idea how valuable we were to God BEFORE we experienced restoration. We tend to walk up and down the aisle of our own warehouse of memories looking at moments, trying to determine which one might not require as much work to restore. We decide that God could never restore THAT old hurt, it cost too much or it got way too damaged in the fire. But that is not what He tells us in His Word. Remember John 10:10? He came so we could have life to the fullest, in all the abundance for which we were originally created - whole, healed, complete, loved, valued, perfectly His in full and utter abundance!

Remember that moment. Respond to His call. Be Restored. Jesus came to restore all things. Not just some things - all things. Abundance requires acceptance of the truth that God desires to restore you and me to our original purpose and function - to live in peace and joy eternally with Him. Will you let Him restore you today?

"Behold, I am making all things new."

~ Jesus