“And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations, And they shall repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations.” Isaiah 61:4
God had Nehemiah rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, two and a half miles in 52 days. The book of Ezra finds God commanding his people to rebuild His fallen temple that the Babylonians had destroyed some 70 years before. Haggai finds himself receiving a commandment from the Lord to go up into the mountains and harvest fresh wood and rebuild the temple of the Lord. And in the most famous of God’s rebuilding projects, we hear Jesus Christ utter these very words, “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will rebuild it." (John 2:19 ISV) There is no doubt, God loves restoring what the world sees as ruins.
A wise pastor once told me a story about a building. The building starts out as an idea, a revelation in the thoughts of a planner, an architect. It then is put to paper; the planning careful to include every needed detail. It then moves to the hands of a builder that recruits a team of craftsmen, a team that has accrued great skill with wood, concrete, electricity, and plumbing. Countless hours are spent in its construction to see it fully become what it was originally planned to be. To create the building was a long, tenuous, arduous journey. But yet the very day it is completed someone sabotages it, planting a bomb in its midst and all that is left is rubble lying upon the soil. It took years to build and minutes to destroy.
But here is where God is God and does what seems impossible to mankind. God takes what looks to the world as hopeless ruin…and rebuilds it to its full and potential glory. Yet God does not do this with concrete and mortar…but with flesh and blood. God restores lives. You see, every single life born upon this planet is born into sin. A reckless rebellion to the perfectly righteous ways of Almighty God. An innate, inborn desire to go our own way, to do our own thing, to do what makes us happy and brings us the most pleasure. Yet as innocent as the world will make this pathway sound, it is a pathway that destroys lives, seeing prideful sin-loving lives left in heaps of pain, remorse, and anguish. Yet God can restore the ruins. In fact, He sent the master restorer to this planet, God in the flesh of a man, His only Son Jesus Christ, to do just this…to restore and rebuild lives to their intended glory.
If you woke up this morning and saw your life as rubble lying upon the ground, there is great hope to see it rebuilt into glory. If you are in the throes of addiction to alcohol, drugs, or pornography, out of the ruins can come victory. If you feel lost today, seeking a path to God that seems to have been destroyed in the jungle growth of this world’s mixed messages, that path can be cleared and restored. You see, on your own you cannot rebuild your life. Yet through the work of Jesus Christ, the master restorer, your life can be whole and be given great purpose. Admit that your sin leaves your life as a fallen wall, stones scattered about. And admit that the wall needs to be rebuilt by someone that is capable, a power no mere mortal possesses. Ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life and then simply stand back and allow Him. Allow Jesus Christ, a God that loves to restore ruins, do what He was sent to do, miraculously grant eternal salvation where before only stood eternal condemnation. A filthy, dirty, sin-stained life will be made as white as snow through the work of Jesus Christ. Today is the day, the day God is ready to restore the ruins.
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1-5
God’s rich blessings upon you in this day ~ Dan
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