Can I just begin today’s thoughts with how amazing God is and how compassionate His thoughts are toward us?  We are all in various places of our growing relationships with God from being very lost and don’t care what God thinks to caring deeply about knowing Him more with pleasing God in all we do.  No matter where we are our lives, God loves us. God loves all He has created.  God wants the very best for each one of us.  God sent His best to rescue us.

Are you in pain from attacks of words and attitudes from those you love that tore your heart into pieces?  God mends and rebuilds broken hearts.  God can be trusted.

Are you wondering where God is when you are lost and in trouble?  God comes to those who honestly seek Him.  He stands ready to take you through the troubles and even provides the peace you need in the middle of the greatest storm.

Is your life in shambles and you feel so overwhelmed you don’t know what to do first to rebuild the mess?  God stands ready with wisdom beyond our human selves along with the plan needed to begin again with Him. God restores order in our lives like no one else. Just ask Him, He is faithful and just to give it, says James, without pointing out all the ways you have failed! 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  James 1:5

So, what are you waiting for and how should you begin?  If you don’t know what to pray, pray the sincere prayer of David with a humbled, ready heart to receive all that God wants to give.  David prayed:

God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!

Psalm 51, MSG

God has the power to make it rain in the dessert of our dismayed and disillusioned lives. 

Zechariah 10, The Message

God’s Work of Rebuilding

Pray to God for rain—it’s time for the spring rain—
    to God, the rainmaker,
Spring thunderstorm maker,
    maker of grain and barley.

^2-3 “Store-bought gods babble gibberish.
    Religious experts spout rubbish.
They pontificate hot air.
    Their prescriptions are nothing but smoke.
And so the people wander like lost sheep,
    poor lost sheep without a shepherd.
I’m furious with the so-called shepherds.
    They’re worse than billy goats, and I’ll treat them like goats.”

* * *

^3-5 God-of-the-Angel-Armies will step in
    and take care of his flock, the people of Judah.
He’ll revive their spirits,
    make them proud to be on God’s side.
God will use them in his work of rebuilding,
    use them as foundations and pillars,
Use them as tools and instruments,
    use them to oversee his work.
They’ll be a workforce to be proud of, working as one,
    their heads held high, striding through swamps and mud,
Courageous and vigorous because God is with them,
    undeterred by the world’s thugs.

* * *

^6-12 “I’ll put muscle in the people of Judah;
    I’ll save the people of Joseph.
I know their pain and will make them good as new.
    They’ll get a fresh start, as if nothing had ever happened.
And why? Because I am their very own God,
    I’ll do what needs to be done for them.
The people of Ephraim will be famous,
    their lives brimming with joy.
Their children will get in on it, too—
    oh, let them feel blessed by God!
I’ll whistle and they’ll all come running.
    I’ve set them free—oh, how they’ll flourish!
Even though I scattered them to the far corners of earth,
    they’ll remember me in the faraway places.
They’ll keep the story alive in their children,
    and they will come back.
I’ll bring them back from the Egyptian west
    and round them up from the Assyrian east.
I’ll bring them back to sweet Gilead,
    back to leafy Lebanon.
Every square foot of land
    will be marked by homecoming.
They’ll sail through troubled seas, brush aside brash ocean waves.
    Roaring rivers will turn to a trickle.
Gaudy Assyria will be stripped bare,
    bully Egypt exposed as a fraud.
But my people—oh, I’ll make them strong, God-strong!
    and they’ll live my way.” God says so!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

• God is sovereign (everywhere all the time and in control) but does not step into our lives unless we ask Him.  So, ASK HIM!
• God seeks those whose hearts are committed to Him and longs to bless us with His best—His growing character in us.  (See 2 Chronicles 16:9; Galatians 5)
• God rebuilds and makes us stronger than we were before we were reduced to rubble.  God puts the muscle into our resolve to follow Him!
• God restores what was broken and renews us just as if nothing had ever happened. “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” Romans 5:1

But, how does believing in Jesus who saved us change our lives? 

• When we say “yes, forgive me, dear Jesus,” we are “born again” as children of God. Instead of being in rebellion against God, we are brought (adopted) into His family, through Christ, with what God has always desired for us — our salvation from sin.  Bonus:  We no longer need to fear death or anything bad that will happen to us, because we have eternal life with God in Heaven. This changes our entire perspective on life: instead of worrying about the concerns of the world which will not last, we can focus on matters of eternal significance—faith, hope, and love of God and with each other in the neighborhoods of our existent on earth.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

How do we live this new life in Jesus every single day? 

God’s Word teaches us how to live…See Galatians 4:1-5 and 5:21-25, Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 12

• It is not about simply following rules—we cannot live the way God wants us to on our own; we need His grace every moment and need to be continually reformed and renewed spiritually by Him. (Romans 12:1-2) This is called “relationship building” with God.  We allow His Holy Spirit who comes to live in us to guide us but we must listen and obey those whispers of what is right. We begin to develop a discipline or habit to listen for God that enables us to avoid the pitfalls of falling back into our “old life” habits. 
• Obedience to God’s will is declaring our deep love for God as we become accustom to our new life in Jesus.
• New life living begins by serving like Jesus.  Begin new habits of compassion. Begin with the little things that positively touch others’ lives and makes them smile. Open a door for someone, be kind when others want to be mean, smile, give generously, look into the eyes of those serving you and acknowledge them, and so on it goes as this new life takes precedence over the old life.  Jesus first, others second, yourself last is the new way of thinking.

But Susan, stuff happens!  I know but grace wins when we let the Holy Spirit guide us in challenging times…

• Our friend broke his promises? Your boss didn’t keep her word? I’m sorry, but before you take action, answer this question: How did God react when you broke your promises to him?
• You’ve been lied to? It hurts to be deceived. But before you double your fists, think: How did God respond when you lied to him?
• You’ve been neglected? Forgotten? Left behind? Rejection hurts. But before you get even, get honest with yourself. Have you ever neglected God? Have you always been attentive to his will? None of us have. How did he react when you neglected him?
• The key to forgiving others is to quit focusing on what they did to you and start focusing on what God did for you.  We live in a broken world who has a broken prince of darkness who wants to pull us from our new life so we can be miserable with him.  But he can only do what we allow him to do.  “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” must be our battle cry against the enemy.

Know that the real enemy is Satan, the fallen angel, who battles God for our attention.  Our best defense is God’s offense of being who evil hates—a beloved child of God who calls out to the Father on our knees, in Jesus Name, regularly, for all of life’s stuff.

Lord,

Whew, all the thoughts you gave us this morning renews our minds, feeds our souls as you cleanse our hearts!  What joy you give as you rebuild and restore us daily!  Thank you, Lord.  I trust you with all my life for you are Life!  Your mercies are, indeed, new each morning! 

In Jesus Name, Amen