Refining, restoration, revival

Here we go again. The same Bible passages within 24 hours. Joseph this time.

First, from Max Lucado via Devotionals Daily: the story of Joseph. A story of restoration.

"Initially, Joseph chose not to face his past... He kept family secrets a secret. Untouched and untreated. Joseph was content to leave his past in the past.

But God was not.

Restoration matters to God. The healing of the heart involves the healing of the past. So God shakes things up.
And Max Lucado talks about Joseph's initial reaction to his brothers. Anger. Put in prison. What was going on?
"I think he was trying to get his bearings. This was the toughest challenge of his life. The famine, by comparison, was easy. Mrs. Potiphar he could resist. Pharaoh’s assignments he could manage. But this mixture of hurt and hate that surged when he saw his flesh and blood? Joseph didn’t know what to do.

Maybe you don’t either.

Your family failed you. Your early years were hard ones. The people who should have cared for you didn’t. But, like Joseph, you made the best of it. You’ve made a life for yourself. Even started your own family. You are happy to leave Canaan in the rearview mirror. But God isn’t.

He gives us more than we request by going deeper than we ask. He wants not only your whole heart; he wants your heart whole.

Why? Hurt people hurt people. Think about it. Why do you fly off the handle? Why do you avoid conflict? Why do you seek to please everyone? Might your tendencies have something to do with an unhealed hurt in your heart? God wants to help you for your sake."

From God Will Carry You Through by Max Lucado, copyright Thomas Nelson.
And think: "Maybe God is disrupting the comfortable distance for a great purpose... "

Maybe it is time for restoration.

And a thought from Jennie Allen,  adapted from Restless, reflecting on Joseph's suffering: "With suffering comes a morbid but helpful perspective that life is moving fast and earth is not our home. I used to live afraid my life wasn't going to work out just right. The more I surrender to suffering and joy and whatever God has for me, the more my fear becomes that I won't spend my life well. I can run farther and longer than I could before. I am not despairing; faith is growing."

I'm studying two Bible plans, through the You Version, at the moment: Discover God's Dream for You by Jennie Allen at the same time as Release, Repair, Revive, Rebuild by Brian Houston.

And this is fascinating - a similar theme: he says "To give us a measure of revival in our bondage."
Here in Ezra 9, we see how the measure of revival God's people have received is within the context of their bondage. But this revival has liberated them and given them a purpose. When God gives us a measure of revival, His measure is not in terms of limits or just enough to survive. God's measure is always more than we need and carries with it the means to fulfil our life's calling and purpose.
Charles Spurgeon said, "Revive means to live again, to receive again a life which has almost expired; to rekindle into a flame the vital spark which was nearly extinguished."

When God brings revival into our life, we receive a kind of awakening, a revitalisation. Things that were left for dead suddenly come to life. Like rain on a desert, what was once barren and lifeless begins to overflow with life and promise. In your everyday life, your coming and going, expect revival. It's God's divine touch in your personal world. Revival will lift you above your circumstances, open your heart and fill it with purpose.

What needs to be REVIVED in your life? What is it that is dead and dying, or perhaps held in bondage? Jesus came to breathe LIFE into dry bones, to declare RISE UP to dead things. Maybe it is your passion for the House of God. Perhaps it is love for your husband or your wife. Maybe your hunger and thirst for the Word of God needs REVIVING today. Speak these verses over your life and watch as dead things come to life."

How do we do this? With PATIENCE:
"But those who trust the Lord
will find new strength.
They will be strong like eagles
soaring upward on wings;
they will walk and run
without getting tired"  Isaiah 40:31

Keep on being brave! It will bring you great rewards. Learn to be patient, so you will please God and be given what he has promised. As the Scriptures say, “God is coming soon! It won't be very long. The people God accepts will live because of their faith. But he isn't pleased with anyone who turns back.” We are not like those people who turn back and get destroyed. We will keep on having faith until we are saved. Hebrews 10:35 - 38

And then 'Verse of the Day': "live in a way that is worthy of the people God has chosen to be his own. Always be humble and gentle. Patiently put up with each other and love each other. Try your best to let God's Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace." Ephesians 4:1-3 CEV

If we followed the latter advice, we wouldn't need restoration of broken relationships and revival would be much more likely to happen in our lives.

All this in one day. Phew.

Life breaks

Great post over at (in)courage on Life Breaks: Bella says:

"Life breaks.

Life wounds.

This world swirls with tragedy that can pull us down, bend our human bodies, and break our spirits.

And still, through it all, God stands.
He stands willing to take all of the brokenness and raise it into something beautiful.

He stands willing to take back the sinner, to hold the brokenhearted, to comfort the lost with words of love.

He stands strong for us when we are weak.

He saves from the flood.

He saves from the fire.

He saves, because he loves.
In this world we will always be hurt. We will confront cruelty and injustice. We will be beaten down by circumstance and by pain.

The world is designed to injure.

So we look to the heavens for comfort.

And He is there, always.

He has not promised that life will never hold deep and bitter things. He has not promised us that loss won’t touch us, or that we won’t become lost.

What he has promised is that in all things, and in all circumstances, He will never leave us.

So we fear.

And we worry.

And we wait out the storm.

Because we are human.
And He watches,
and waits,
and saves.

Because He is God.
Life breaks.

But as long as we hold tight to Him, we never will."

Life breaks. BUT GOD MENDS.

Bent wires

The summer break has afforded me all kinds of opportunities to catch up. Some pleasurable - coffee with friends, lunches with friends, evenings with friends...Some necessary...doctor appointments, hair appointments, tidying appointments, sorting and throwing away appointments...And some - well, some that are both pleasurable and necessary in varying proportions.  Such as tiny mending chores, or restringing beads. Tightly wrapped bundles of frustration and satisfaction intertwined.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. Is it REALLY necessary to mend the tiny holes in a pair of old gloves, when I could throw them away and buy another pair?  I find myself listing reason after reason:
1. Waste not, want not. Why spend money when, with a few stitches, they will last a little time longer as a 'spare pair' for when I have lost the others.
2. Growing up as a 'post-war-just-out-of-rationing-baby' has seeped frugality into my soul. I have to be frugal: it's my nature.
3. Decades of my life in Africa taught me not to throw away: the shame of consigning something perfectly serviceable to the garbage when it would be rescued, redeemed and recycled - many years before that became acceptable, let alone fashionable as it is now...
4. The mantra 'Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle'  is an inherent part of how I live...most stuff doesn't even make it as far as recycle. Just gets reused many times over in different forms before it is allowed to leave my ownership..
5. It's satisfying. It pleases me. In its own small way, mending and repairing things makes me happy. I'm in the business of redemption and restoration. Finishing a mending project puts a smile on my face.
So I mended gloves; repaired a string hammock (great for our camping trip later this month); kept a useful zip-up jacket in circulation with a few stitches to secure the zip; and customized a beloved cardigan into a little shrug. It had belonged to my grandmother, worn by me until my daughter pounced on it, loving it until the elbows wore through...some ribbon, a new hem, careful stitching... it's now hiding in her cupboard, waiting for her to come tomorrow.
Then I turned to different work with needle and thread. Favourite necklaces begged to be restrung, but it was the bracelet making that fascinated me. A scattered collection of colourful beads pleaded to be brought back to usefulness. Too few for necklaces, they gathered together in wrist-sized groups. A little stretchy elastic later, and I found myself with more beaded jewellery than a Rendille wife...It was fun.

But I put off the necklace repairs. Previously, I have struggled with a needle, the eye of which is so small as to be invisible if viewed in a poor light. (Or with middle-aged eyes, which is what mine reluctantly are.) But this time, I discovered a bead threader. A nifty little gadget, its design is so simple I'm amazed I haven't come across it before now. It has been my saviour in the process of necklace re-stringing. It is an ultra-thin piece of wire, doubled up on itself, and then twisted into a 'rope' with an eyelet on one end. Tease a piece of thread through the hole, then push the threader, cut ends first, through a bead and the thread follows. I repaired my necklaces in a matter of minutes.

That bead threader released me from the intense concentration needed to thread - and keep threaded - a needle. I had time to think. And so it was that while I was carefully threading nylon through tiny holes I started thinking about more important things than jewellery.

Relationships.

Because mending something physical is so much easier than attempting to mend a broken relationship. Even just thinking about it brings on a frown...

It was the bead threader's fault in more ways than one. Not only did it give me time to think, it showed me how relationships can go wonky at times. Because as I used that brilliant little piece of wire, I found that, like a relationship, I had to keep on working with it.  That wire was so thin and flexible that when I pushed it through a narrow bead it started to bend. I had to stop and straighten out the kinks before I could carry on using it.

Like a relationship, really. 

I noticed several things.  

I noticed that, when the bead hole was large, the bead threader had no issues with it. There was plenty of space for it to pass through, and so I didn't have to do anything except, occasionally, pat it and smooth it down.  The distance between the bead threader and the bead hole was so large that much could be forgiven. The sides of the hole and the threader barely touched.

Relationships don't usually go awry when I am not close to someone.

I noticed that, when the hole was narrow, the ends of the bead threader caught. I had to pull the threader out, straighten it firmly between fingers and thumb, and then try again. Sometimes I had to try a couple of times before I could thread the bead.

Relationships, when close, can cause difficulty.

I noticed that, just like the bead threader, relationships can become twisted and bent. They need a lot of work to straighten them out. It takes time and effort. Maybe a chat over coffee doesn't resolve an issue straight away. Maybe a lunch is needed, too. 

I noticed that sometimes that bead threader just didn't work. It wouldn't do what it was supposed to.

Relationships,like the bead threader, are sometimes not 'fit for purpose'.

So, I wondered, what is the 'purpose' of my relationships? And what does God want to do in and through those relationships - particularly when they are difficult?

To be continued