September 22, 2023 … God’s Restoring Grace …

September 22, 2023 … God’s Restoring Grace …   

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...   Please take the time to take in this song with lyrics from the group Elevation Worship singing … Graves Into Gardens … Poignantly, yet powerfully singing of how God can - AND WILL - restore His creation from brokenness to beauty.   .  

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Highlight Passage: … Isaiah 65:17 [NLT] … 

17 “Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. 

… Isaiah relays God’s promise of a newly restored Jerusalem for God’s promised people.                       

Highlight Passage (Context): … Isaiah 65:16-22 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK …  

… God prophesies, thru Isaiah, His restoration of God’s broken creation into a new and glorious creation.                                                                                                                     

===============                                                                 .                                                                                                                                             

Reference Passage: … Psalms 52:12 [NLT] …  

12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You.  

… King David, after his brokenness in sin with Bathsheba, prays in song of God restoring him into obedience and having the joy of God’s salvation.  .  

Reference Passage: … Jeremiah 29:11  [NLT] … 

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 

… God, thru Jeremiah, promises His covenant plans for the restoration of Jerusalem.  

Reference Passage: …Joel 2:25-26  [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK  … 

… God’s promise - thru Joel - of the restoration of His chosen people.     

Reference Passage: … Matthew 6:33 [NLT] …  

33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. 

… Jesus promises that He will restore His born-again Christians if they (we) seek His kingdom above our own desires.                   

Reference Passage: … 1Peter 5:10 [NLT] …  

10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. 

… Peter relays God’s promise of restoration when - and IF - God’s people are willing to wait patiently, thru a time of suffering, for God’s promise of His glory.        

                                                                              

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Winn Collier   … AT THIS LINK …   uses the Japanese art form of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is restored to beauty by artisans who use gold reparative seams (see photo) to illustrate God’s restoration promises and power.  .             

Kintsugi is a good life picture to illustrate how our God promises - and then delivers - a glorious restoration of His promised people … from the brokenness of our sin nature to the glory of His redeemed creation.  And I pray that all reading here with me will experience that glorious restoration thru our faith in Christ’s redeeming and restoring power thru His mercy and grace. He’s take this old, broken, warrior from my gory to His glory by His saving and restoring grace.  What about you?       

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for restoring my brokenness to receive Your redeeming and repairing grace.                

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to revel, Lord, in the promise and power of Your merciful and restoring grace.     … Amen

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK  on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.