Restoration Takes Time

Joel 2 : 25, So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust... NKJV

In Genesis chapter one, God is restoring what was previously destroyed by Satan and his fall. Many of us have been taught that this is the account of God creating the earth. In Genesis 1:1, we're told that God created the Heavens and the earth in the beginning. Later, in that same chapter, God told man to REPLENISH the earth. 

Genesis 1 : 28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth... KJV

The purpose of today's devotion isn't an attempt to try and convince you to believe something differently than what you might have been taught. Today's word goes much deeper than a theological debate over terminology. Whether you believe God was in the mode of creating or restoring, the fact remains the same. It took God six days to make earth a place that was conducive for man to exist. 

The Lord wants me to point this truth out to you so that as a believer, and  especially as one of His children, you will know and understand that restoration takes time. I know that sometimes we like to think of God as a "being" that can snap His fingers and poof, "there it is." If this is your heart's view of God, then Satan will use that mindset (or point-of-view) against you. Our God isn't a "poofer," but He is the Creator God, who works through the power and confines of His spoken Word. The writer of Hebrews teaches that Jesus (God) is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The writer also reveals to us that God upholds all things by the word of His power.

 God set a principle in motion in Genesis 8 when He stated, "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." NKJV

When God was ready to restore the earth and place man over His creation, He operated through the power of His spoken word. Throughout the Bible, the Word is described as being "The Seed of God." These principles that I am sharing with you today are to give you a better understanding about the ways of God. When God does "a work" in the earth, then know that He is bound by the principles that He has set in place to govern the universe. We know that God operates through the spoken Word that has gone forth from His mouth. However, He also operates in seasons. Just as a farmer waits on springtime before he plants the seed into the ground, God operates in seasons  (Ecclesiastes 3) 

Here is the reason why I am writing today's word to you. Are you going through a season of loss...and as a believer in Christ you're waiting on the Lord to restore what has been stolen from you? In today's passages from Joel, we read where God promised to restore the YEARS that the enemy has stolen from us... but know that restoration can take time.

Before God caused any life to begin to appear on the earth, He first placed things in their proper order. He spoke structure into existence that would govern the earth before He released the Word to bring forth life on the earth. Restoration takes time because God first must place structure in our hearts and lives that will allow life to exist and continue unhindered. As Christians, if we don't know the ways of God and how it takes time for Him to carry out His promises in our lives, Satan can cause us to doubt the faithfulness of our God. When God's people don't know the ways of God and why He doesn't just "snap" His fingers, then they must resort to waiting (or being patient) under the test of their faith.   

James teaches us in his epistle to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience. He goes on to say that when patience has done her perfect work, we will complete, entire, not lacking. Today, if you're waiting on God to bring restoration into your life, know that it will take time, but it will come. Be careful that you don't give up on God and fall back into a life of unbelief. There are examples of those who lost faith and missed their hour of visitation or salvation because of unbelief. He remained faithful even though some in the Bible gave up. 

I Don't Want to Miss Him,
Pastor Asa