An Image Restored

My boss returned to work from a much deserved vacation yesterday, and as often happens when one returns from vacation; he was greeted with a problem first thing. He very heavily depends upon his computer throughout the day and his computer was very sick! After trying everything he and I knew to do, we resorted to calling our computer techies to rescue him from impending Monday-back-from-vacation doom. They tried for several hours to no avail to fix his computer remotely, but finally surrendered those attempts and actually come on site to work on his computer. I think it was around 3 o’clock before it was fixed and I heard her say these words:

“I restored it, everything’s fine now.”

I’m sure she wasn’t thinking what I was thinking, but a light bulb went off in my spirit. We are very sin-sick people; we have been corrupted with sin, just like his computer had been infected with a virus. To look at the computer, it seemed as if nothing had changed on the outside, the problem was on the inside. It’s very much the same with us, most of the time we look exactly the same on the outside, because our problem is on the inside. She had to restore his computer with an image of what it was like brand new, prior to being infected by the virus, but she would never have restored it if we had not called. We have to call on God to restore us to brand new –

“Restore us to Thee, O LORD, that we may be restored; Renew our days as of old” Lamentations 5:21

Once we call out to Him for restoration, which by the way means “to take back” or “fetch home again”, He promises to do just that.

1 Peter 5:10 “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”

Guess what that word “perfect” means? I am glad you asked, because I looked it up! The meaning of the original word for perfect means “restore”! The God of all grace who called me to His eternal Glory will RESTORE me through Christ. Christ was the perfect imaged to be copied onto me so that I can live eternally as He intended for me from the beginning. Once I have called upon Him to restore me and make my heart new, He will forgive me, renewing my days of old – making me just like the perfect child He saw kneel before Him to accept His Son. With His restoration I can be up and running again, about the business He intended. Without it, I may look the same, but I won’t be living as He intended for me to live from the moment I was brand new.

Therefore if any man is in Christ,
he is a new creature,
the old things passed away;
behold new things have come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Father, help us realize through the simplicity of this example, how simple you intended salvation and restoration to be. You make us new on the day of salvation, and then You restore us every time we call upon You. I thank you, Jesus, for allowing Yourself to be the perfect image to facilitate that restoration. I pray, Father, that we would realize the viruses infecting us and call upon You to bring the image of Jesus to us and restore us to what you intended – His perfection. Lord, sometimes when we add too many things to ourselves, it bogs us down, just like our computers get bogged down. The hour glass keeps spinning and we keep running, never accomplishing anything for You. I pray for our willingness and surrender to let You take us back today one, even if it requires some changes, even painful ones, in our lives.




Royal Princess Daughter Of The King