One of the reasons we do Grace Place is because we want to touch even more people with God’s grace, mercy, love, forgiveness and restoration.  This is not just words on a page, this is a major part of our purpose, a big time reason why we do a lot of the things we do.

Last Sunday, I shared a message on this very thing and all this week we have been talking about the different components of touch that allow us to experience, share and grow in God.  Today, I want to focus for just a few moments on an ultimate part of the goal:  Restoration!

Restoration is the hard work of repairing that which has been broken, fitting that which has become unfit, framing that which has become unframed and mending that which is coming a part.  Restoration is hard work, but there is good news:  God has already done most of the heavy lifting!

Galatians 6:1-5 gives us our instruction:  “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.”

Restoration is not about putting things the way you want them or think they should be.  Restoration is about putting things the way God intended them to be.  God’s amazing grace gives us what we could never earn or deserve.  God’s mercy keeps us from getting the punishment and separation that we have earned and do deserve.  God, Who is love, shares Himself and all that He is with me and gives me the ability to participate in the divine by giving to others this most precious of gifts.  This gift of love allows me to forgive which not only gives freedom to others, but allows me to experience the power of living unhindered and unrestricted.

We all have a choice to make.  Will we live for selfish reasons or for supernatural reasons?  Henery Drummond gives us some advice:  “Let man choose life; let him daily nourish his soul; let him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living branch in the Vine, and the true Vine life will flow into his soul, assimilating, renewing, conforming to type, till Christ, pledged by His own law, will be formed in him.”

God wants to take us to a place that we could never take ourselves.  Open your heart, spirit and mind, enjoy the gifts God has given you and as you live in the power of restoration, let your restored life give Him great glory.