Restorer

The names of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit have always been special to me.  I treasure that God is our Heavenly Father, our Provider, the Creator and the list could continue.  Jesus as Immanuel, God with us, stirs my heart to remember that Jesus dwelt among men and suffered.  The Holy Spirit as our Comforter means the most to me in moments where I am unsure how to pray.

The past few days have been a whirl wind of going here, there, and yonder.  Still God has faithfully traveled the miles with me, both literally and figuratively.  As I continue my faith journey, I bask in the reality of the twenty-third Psalm.  “He restores my soul.”

Being true to the curiosity within me, I looked up this verse in several different translations.  In the New International Version and the Contemporary English Version, the Lord is described as “refreshing” the psalmist soul.  Eugene Petterson’s paraphrase simply states, “True to your word, you let me catch my breath.”  The King James Version, the translation from which I memorized this psalm originally, describes how the Lord “restoreth” my soul.

Regardless from which translation read this text, I am at peace knowing that God is restoring me.  God knows about my brokenness, business, and struggles, and yet God still restores me.  He sees past all the times I have failed and still empowers me to minister to others.  I am humbled at how God has restored my relationships with others, restored how I think about myself, and restored my dreams.  

Yes, God still has much more to restore within me and around me, and yet in the midst of everything I know the Restorer.  Amen.

“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Psalm 51:12