Restore

Somehow when I tried to connect a new wireless printer to my computer...I configured something somewhere that messed up my computer...and it has been that way for days...in an effort to keep from calling the Dell reps in India that I am hardly able to understand...I tried to figure out how to restore my computer to an earlier setting where things were working just fine. It has worked before....and chances are...they just might work again. Sure enough I found the topic "run" and searched for restore...It gave me a selection of dates to go back to...I tried it and it worked.

But the experience reminded me of a lesson that my Sunday school teacher, Roger taught a couple of years ago. It related to trusting God. He said if you are in a fix and need to be able to trust God in a certain situation...sometimes to get the courage up to do so you have to go back to time when you have actually seen God's hand on your life. It might just be an event that happened yesterday or maybe it was years ago when you were convinced that nothing and no one could have gotten you through whatever it was that you were dealing with except God. And stady on that truth...If he was faithful that time..then he again will be faithful this time.

Here we are celebrating Thanksgiving...for some of us we need this holiday reminder to stay still a minute and reflect on what we have been given and the blessings that we have experienced and continue to experience. Being grateful and appreciative for what we have and not just longing for what we don't have. This is a good time to go back and restore our thanksgiving setting to a time where we saw the results of God's faithfulness and thank him for it then and continue to faithfully submit that gratitude to him on a daily basis not just a declared holiday setting.

Psalm 100:4
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

God continues to restore us through his grace...and his set point is not in the past, like ours but in His future....for us. Being thankful for what he has done in our past sets our stage wide for opportunities to thank him for what he is doing now through us and what he will do for us in the future. There are times when we have asked ...and God has said no not because he is being deliberately unmerciful...but because he knows so much more about us than we do...and sometimes what we "think" we need... is not at all conducive to what God "knows" we need.

We see temporary ...God sees eternal
We see quick fixes ..God sees heavenly plans
We see adversity.... God sees growth
We see guilty...........God sees forgiven
We see unworthy.....God sees HIS precious child

If you are fretting over something... be it anything...that just is not working....look for that point when you knew that God was with you...there is that point!..He is still there...he is still working....He will always be there..May we come to God with thanksgiving and a grateful heart....for what he has done on our behalf..He has unlimited resources that are ours for the asking. They are not resources as the world knows but resources of the heart and soul of God's love and grace unto US!

Be constantly reminded of his faithfulness....he has given each of us the strength,courage or the perseverance to get through tough times...His word is living and as real today as it was thousands of years before...My ultimate point of restoration is when his son Jesus died for me...and for you and for all those who believe in Him...

I thank God for his faithfulness in the little things...that I so take for granted each day...and I also thank Him for helping my eyes to be opened to see the blessings that are before me even in adversity. For I know he is always working his plans....even though I am slow to see, slow to understand, and slow to react to his mighty ways.

I am grateful for his hand upon my life...and grateful too for HIS hand upon yours...For we are all his chosen children...loved and accepted and gradually in the process of being restored and transformed for His intended purpose for each of our lives....on this earth.

1 Peter 5:10
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

To God be the Glory.. thank you Lord! Amen

Praise God where ever you are and whatever situation he has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!