O God, Restore us and Save us

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.  (Psalm 80:3)

With every enemy, face the danger of losing much more than material things.

When we are faced with an enemy we pray for victory over our enemy.  We believe victory over our enemies is about getting what we want.  What we do not realize is, in the process we pay a heavy price and lose much more than we would ever win. 


We get caught up in the battle; and we lose our inner freedom, inner peace, capacity to love and to serve.  Instead, ego, self pity, insecurity, bitterness, hatred and selfishness begin to control the decisions we make. 

“Restore us O God, that we may be saved”…

When I turn to God in my crisis, first HE restores what I had lost… inner peace and freedom, the capacity to love and to serve; and most of all the grace to trust in HIS plans for me…  It is only when HE has restored what I had lost that I will be truly saved from the destruction that the enemy could cause in my life.

They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the LORD and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. (2 Samuel 1: 12)

David is mourning the death of his nemesis???

The crisis with Saul had taken David deeper into the heart of God.  David had found that his security, his fortress, his rock is his loving God.  Therefore, the death of his enemy was not a reason to celebrate, but a reason to mourn. 

God has not only saved David from his enemy, but had restored all that he could have lost –  his ability to love his enemy, serve his people, inner freedom to make the right decisions for his nation…

Our focus on our enemy loses our ability to make the right decisions.  Therefore we act in self defense, we try to protect ourselves and our interests, and make decisions that harm us in the long term.  We may win a battle but lose the war.

Every crisis is an opportunity to go deeper into the heart of God and to journey with HIM closely.  It is an opportunity to cling on to HIM till we hear HIS voice and see HIS leading. 

“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”  (Mark 3: 20)

Crowds followed Jesus, yet the family thought Jesus was “out of his mind”. 

Family... the ones who should have been Jesus’s biggest support tried to stop HIM.  In a way, there were playing the roles of the enemy.  Towards the end of this Chapter Jesus says “whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother”. 

I sense His disappointment about His family members in this statement.  But I also see Jesus’s rising above HIS disappointment to include everyone who does the will of God as HIS family.  The crisis had taken Jesus deeper into the heart of God, and what could have ended in bitterness ends up in a revelation.

This is the difference between focusing on God and focusing on our enemies.  Max Lucado says it beautifully in his book “Facing the Giants”.

“If you focus on God, your giants will fall.  If you focus on your giants, you will fall”.

Reflecting Today's Readings: 12th January 2011

First Reading (1 Samuel 4: 1-11)

The Israelites were losing the battle with the Philistines and they decide to bring the Ark of the Lord to the battlefield.   When the Ark of the Lord arrives, Israel gives out a victory shout which terrifies the Philistines.   The Philistines had heard about the God of Israel and what HE has done to save HIS people.  The Philistines decide, if we have to go let’s go with a BANG! And they fight the Israelites with all that they have.

AND, the Philistines win! 

Israel lost thirty thousand soldiers that day, the two sons of the Prophet Eli who were with the Ark of the Lord were killed and the Ark of the Lord was captured by the Philistines. 

What really happened here?  

God moved the heaven and earth to bring the Israelites out of Egypt… but when things became easy, the Israelites took God for granted.  They lived to satisfy their hunger and their lust.  They lived separated from God, and they lived in sin.  On the day of the battle with the Philistines, they took the Ark of the Lord to the battlefield – but the Lord did not go with them.  

God was not theirs to be used.  HE is to be worshipped, to be honoured, to be loved by the people HE calls HIS own.  

Unfortunately we still continue this pattern… we easily fall into the sin of taking God for granted.  We begin by not having time for HIM, and move on to hating the things HE loves and loving the things HE hates…   Slowly but surely, a day will come when we can’t run away from the consequences of our wrong living.  On that day, we try to use HIM again, and we find out for ourselves, HE is not our's to be used.

Second Reading (Mark 1: 40-45)

A leper falls at the feet of Jesus and says, “if you are willing, you can make me clean”.  Jesus moved with pity, touches the leper and says “I am willing, be clean!”.  The leprosy leaves him immediately and he was made clean.

The day when the consequences of my wrong living catch up with me is indeed a day of blessing.  That would be the day that my eyes would open and I realize my sin of trying to use HIM to continue to live a life separated from HIM.  And that would be the day that I would fall at HIS feet and say “if you are willing, you can make me clean”.

HE is waiting to say the words… “I am willing, be clean”.  I am sure, even before I could complete the sentence, I would be made clean of my sin, my guilt, and my shame.

Yet, I do not want to wait for that day… I want to fall at HIS feet every day and hear HIM  say the words “I am willing, be clean”.  In fact, I do not want leave HIS feet at all, because all that I am looking for is right there at HIS feet, and so much more.