Restored: 2 Peter: Prayers and Poetry

                Restored 

                Lies can often

                hide within

                ourselves waiting

                for the opportunity

                to turn us from

                honesty into appearance

                need His light

                moment by moment

                and remember

                Truth.

Psalm 89:40: "Thou hast broken down all his walls; Thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin."

                

Reflection: Restored: Grace in the Wilderness: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Have you had someone deny you forgiveness?

2.     Have you denied yourself the possibility of forgiveness?

3.     In what ways does that make you wonder about God’s gift of restoration?

4.     What part of you needs to trust in order to accept: mind, heart, or will?

5.     What defines restoration for you personally?

Restored: Grace in the Wilderness: Prayers and Poetry

Jeremiah 31: 18, “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving, Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For Thou art the Lord my God.”

May be restored.

Sometimes our grief can so envelop us that we cannot see clearly or discern the difference between chastisement or condemnation, both towards ourselves and towards others. So the separation and the isolation build brick walls around our hearts.

May be restored.

Scripture says chastise. A door open to forgiveness and restoration and renewal. In God’s hands there is no sin that cannot be forgiven. No sin that cannot be survived. In His hands and in His care and in His mending ways.

May be restored.

Step by step sometimes in agonizing slowness. And yet the grief can be unveiled and with each layer His presence brings clearer sight. Clearer vision to begin again.

May be restored.

Soak this promise into each one of us, Lord, so that we will always bring our tears and sins, and denials, into Your hands remembering that You stand by us in truth, love, mercy, and forgiveness.

Your thoughts,

Kingdom Manna

Intercede

Luke 11:20, But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

Clothed in peace

the demoniac rests among

ruins, ready to return to life.

Restored.

Clasped in Jesus’ words.

Legions flee crashing

down cliffs. A mute voice

freed. From lunacy a son loosed.

Returned.

Driven by Jesus’ words.

Creation fashioned, shaped,

molded in Christ’s hand.

Life forged from chaos.

Revealed.

Formed in Jesus’ words.

Lives drawn from demon grip.

Finger of God casts out. Rescue.

Dungeon now kingdom home.

Renewed.

Spoken by Jesus’ words.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 102:20

to hear the groans of the prisoners,

to set free those who were doomed to die;