"I Will Restore"

Darkness is descending around us like a hurricane 
     and all stability is shaken.
Societies around the world seek to move forward,
     while the past rises up to remind of all that has been lost.
Lost not only all around us, but also in our own lives -
     there are things now forever beyond our reach. 
Day dreams and self-generated optimism never stand up in the light of reality.
     We need to hear the  voice of God.

The voice of God created the worlds,
and everything which exists owes its origin to the same Source.

In our lives, not only in our spiritual birth, but in our daily existence, 
we depend upon the Word of God for our quickening.

In Joel 2.25 God says, "I will restore to you the years."
There is something here which brings a speechless amazement.
The declaration jumps beyond the workings of our mind,
and impacts in the deeper realms where life itself is found.

Restoration is impossible in the sphere of time.
That which has been swallowed up by the passing years can return no more.
     But when God speaks creation takes place -
     blind eyes are made to see,
     the deaf hear, and the weak are made strong.
When God speaks there is not just an influx of life, 
but there is a true bringing again of what time has consumed.

How far does this promise reach?
Can God restore us to the highest point in our past? 
Can He restore us to the heaven ordained possibilities of our lives?

God renews and recreates that which has been lost. 
He sets before us every passing day a new world of possibilities as infinite as Himself. 

Restoration has been the need of all mankind ever since man's loss in the garden of Eden.
Decadence has been the journey of men and nations.
"All decays and nothing is forever," -
and yet ... God is forever,
and His plan and His power are forever.

He can reach into the past and bring again,
just as surely as He brought Lazarus from the tomb -
so with each human life,
so with each of His children.  

At the end of time there will be a new creation -
New Heavens and a New Earth.
But for us, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: 
old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2Cor. 5.17)
The God of Time and Eternity is able to bring us to a new world even now.

     At this time, this juncture of history: 
                           May God's Life be restored as our life,
                           May God's Light be restored as our light.

          May we walk in a sure Path through the surrounding darkness.