Do you ever feel like you are spiritually wallowing in a place that you would love to escape yet feel like you are there by your own doing? Whether by your own action or inaction you find yourself stuck, broke and wondering if it will always be this way. Does it feels like you have wandered into some kind of exile from God, not really knowing how or why but suspecting that you probably deserve to be in this unhappy place?
That description doesn't adequately describe how I have felt often times this last past year but it will suffice for now. I haven't been enjoying the hope and optimism that usually marks my life. I have lacked the compunction that normally exists to serve as a great motivator toward discipline and righteousness. On the outside these traits may still seem evident but I know that inwardly there has been a great departure.
I felt like God grabbed my attention when he said in Jeremiah 31:4, “I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.” Specifically, I was struck by how God referred to Israel. If you are familiar with any of the prophetic books then you quickly recognize that this isn't how God generally refers to the nation. Words like wicked, adulterous, unrighteous and unfaithful are commonplace in his dealings with these people. Theologians place this passage in the “yet to happen” column but the promise of restoration is crystal clear.
Only God can take a people, who by their action and inaction, have exiled themselves from him and ultimately bring them back to a place where all of their filth is treated as if it never appeared. We see the picture from God's perspective which is a big picture indeed. The big picture includes how God oversaw the destruction and exile of His people with the singular purpose of seeing them fully restored beyond any hope or imagination they had.
And that is the essence of the hope that God has placed within me. I know that He is bringing you and me to a place of restoration and fruitfulness that we neither hoped for nor imagined. Bring your restoration Lord!
