Restoration Begins Here!

James 5:19-20 (NLT)

My dear brothers and sisters, if someone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back, you can be sure that whoever brings the sinner back will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

Galatians 6:1-10 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Today I’d like to share an experience in my life that has impacted me in a great way. I have been on both sides of these verses in my own life. I remember a time when a friend of mine was going through a very difficult time in her life. Over a short period of time, she had become more and more distant from me. This was shocking considering we had previously been great friends and prayer partners. We regularly watched each other’s kids and helped each other clean our own homes as well as working together to help clean others’ homes. She had moved, so I attributed this distance to the physical distance, but after a while of rarely hearing from her, I had a gut feeling something was not right, and I felt that God was telling me that I needed to intervene for my friend. I fasted and prayed for her for an entire day praying for the truth to be revealed. At that point, I called her and she broke down to tell me what had been going on in her life. She had fallen away from God and was living for herself. As a result, she felt empty and used up!

I went to her house and spent most of the day praying with her and sharing the love of Christ with her. She remembered where she had fallen from and recommitted her life to the Lord right then. It took her months to be restored, but as I watched her faith soar, it was a joy to know that I had helped restore her, saving her from death! I had heeded Galatians 6 that admonishes us to be careful that we do not fall into the same temptation. Sadly, I must’ve stopped short on the verse that reminds us not to get tired of doing good as I began to become weary at some point in my walk with the Lord.

We moved to a new community, and I had not connected with many people. It seemed very hard to make those connections no matter how hard I tried, and I felt all alone. Instead of doing something about it by looking for someone to encourage or taking a meal to an elderly neighbor who was caring for her husband who was in the final phases of Alzheimer’s, I chose to get more and more down. Add to that the challenges of having a new baby who quickly became a toddler all while trying to homeschool our older two children and dealing with added marital stress, I began to give up. My faith was faltering, and I was giving up. I decided to get a job to try to make connections thinking I could revive my faith by putting my faith in action, but I was not strong enough in my faith to stand strong in that environment. My marriage got worse and we almost ended up divorced.

It seems I had forgotten the verses that say, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

I had given up and decided to live for myself. I was certainly only living to satisfy my sinful nature, and when all was said and done, I was just like my friend had been. I felt used up and worthless. There were many brothers and sisters in Christ who came alongside me and restored me. My husband has come back from the brink of the destruction the enemy intended for his life as well. God has given us both a special grace that had not been there before, and it is amazing to see him walking in that grace. For me, it’s been a long road back, much longer than the months it took for my friend, and I still struggle with God’s grace, but I am learning to walk in that grace daily and sometimes moment by moment.

May you be encouraged to walk in His grace even when you feel unworthy. He loves you more than you can ever understand.

In His Grace!