Restore

Restore. According to the dictionary, to restore is: re·store – to bring back (a previous right, practice, custom, or situation); reinstate.

To return (someone or something) to a former condition, place, or position. What is there about you that needs to be restored? What about you is broken and needs to be returned to a former condition, place, or position?

Across twenty-three years of serving in this role, I have been occasionally broken in various ways. I am often in need of restoration. Relationships get strained and need to be restored, more often than we would like. At sixty-one years of age, I need some occasional physical restoration. I find that my attitude is often a little sideways and needs restoration. How I think about particular issues, people, or groups often needs to be restored.

Regardless of the nature or the degree of your brokenness, find a way to be restored. There are certainly a number of ways to be restored, and I have listed some of the ways I have found to be most effective. These are often a little radical, but they are also very effective.

1.   Rest. Brokenness and pain is often the result of fatigue, sleep deprivation, and the loss of margin in our lives. Take some time off, rest, and be restored.

2.   Repent. Some of our brokenness is simply due to willful sin and foolish patterns of lifestyle. Repent. Change direction. Stop it. Be restored.

3.   Confess. Agree with God, and with trusted friends, that your brokenness is sin, and receive God’s forgiveness. Read I John 1:9 again, and again. Be restored.

4.   Ask forgiveness. The path to restoring relationships is to ask forgiveness and to extend it to others. Find a way to express your heart, bury your pride, and be restored.

5.   Resign. My brokenness is often because I’m overcommitted and serving outside my giftedness and calling. Yours could be as well. Resign from such roles and be restored.

6.   Refocus. As our brokenness dissipates and our vision clears, we are better able to focus on our calling from God, our giftedness, our strengths and weaknesses. This process of restoration enables us to refocus on wise and God-honoring goals. Refocus and be restored.

These ideas may seem really simple, and they are. Broken people don’t need complexity, they need a simple plan to be restored. Please take the time to appropriate one or more of these strategies and be restored. Those who care about you, those who work with you, those whom you serve; we all need you at your best. Restore.