Restoration, Support, and Strength

I can’t sleep.  I’ve tried.  But I’m in love.  With 1 Peter 5.  It’s ringing in the ears of my heart, keeping me up, stirring me up, causing relief and hope to surge within me … and I can’t afford to sleep.  To lose it.  To minimize it.  I can’t afford not to share it. 

The chapter, though I’ve probably read it dozens of times, has come alive to me in ways that I have never seen before.  Tonight, at a different stage in life and with a clarity brought on by a recent mission trip – the verses seem almost woven together for me.  For you.  Because I don’t know about you, but lately, I’ve been feeling drained, like my heart has been under attack, and like I have nothing left to give.  I imagine, if you’ve been a Christian for very long, you probably understand that feeling.  And that’s what I’m in love with about 1 Peter 5.  Here’s the beginning of the chapter, so you understand my excitement about verse 10.  You see, the chapter begins with the assurance that Paul was just like us and understood the difficulties of navigating this life in Christ, about suffering, about exhaustion and uncertainty (verse 1).  But Paul follows that up with a warning, an admonition to all of us as Christians and as people, to avoid falling into a rut, of doing what is “easiest” instead of what is best and what is right, of being so caught up with working for a paycheck that we forget to better the lives of others, to share hope, to protect and encourage life in the broken all around us (verse 2).   Then, he urges us to lead by example, be humble in the workplace and in God’s eyes, and to acknowledge we can’t carry the burden of brokenness and imperfection and a hurting world alone, but to turn all of our worries over to Him (verse 7).  Keeping it realistic and practical, in verse 8, he talks about the Enemy who prowls about our lives to devour us – to devour our passions, our callings, our compassion, our time, our focus, to get us so burnt out that our energy and gifts are squandered on busywork that ultimately leave us empty and unfulfilled.  Verse 9, therefore,  encourages us to resist the enemy and rely on brothers and sisters in Christ who are likewise battling for the Kingdom of God, battling to keep their hearts alive in a discouraging atmosphere, battling to see God’s plan and believe it is still good when the pain and struggle have worn on longer than they expected.  

Which brings us to verse 10. In the last hour, I have pored over various translations of this verse, dug into the Strong’s Concordance, and searched the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary – and have been blessed to hear from God in such a resounding way.  The verse, in the New Living Translation, says:

“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.”  

But that’s not all.  After digging into the dictionaries mentioned above and a few other translations, my notes read like this:

“After you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who has called you to His everlasting presence through Christ – He will complete you thoroughly, restore your story, revive you, resuscitate you and bring you back to life.  He will turn you resolutely in a certain direction, support and sustain you to keep you from fainting, sinking, or failing.  He will be inexhaustible in his support of you.  He will strengthen you, confirming your calling in spiritual knowledge and power.  He will animate you, encourage you, fix your resolution, and cause you to increase in power and security.  He will place you on a firm foundation, ground you in Christ and settle you.”  

Isn’t that amazing?  That is God’s heart for you.  For me.  God’s heart is to breathe life back into us when we feel empty and drained, to establish us in strength, to keep us from fainting, sinking or failing at what is most important.  He wants to confirm our calling in power – His power.  He wants to see us increasing in strength and security – not insecurity.  We were made with a purpose, a divine purpose, to live for Christ, to impact the world with the Gospel, to live boldly and freely in all that God created us to be.  If we are feeling constrained, boxed in, hemmed in – that is not God’s best for us.  He wants to revive us, to resuscitate us and give us another shot at a life invigorated by the Holy Spirit.  He wants to turn us in the direction we should go in, animated and encouraged that He is with us and will never leave us or forsake us.  

I know it isn’t easy.  I know that the days get long and the battles get wearisome.  I know that there is evil in the world and corruption and compromise that makes your heart despair of ever seeing “right” win.  I know that some days or weeks or months, it feels like we’re fighting an uphill battle in flip-flops and it’s raining and we aren’t sure we can keep our footing – but God has promised that the suffering will be “only a little while.”  On the other side of this battle, on the other side of this hill – there is a future that will make this moment pale into oblivion.  We won’t even remember it.  Because He will restore, support, strengthen and establish us in His best for us.  

What does that look like for you?  What does it look like for me?  What does it look like to be restored?  To be supported?  To be strengthened and established in Christ and in our identity in Him?  I’m not entirely sure.  It’s going to be different for all of us, because our God is an individual God.  He doesn’t do “cookie-cutter.”  But I can guarantee you this – even the thought of it causes my heart to sigh with relief, to feel at rest, to feel at home.  Even the thought of God’s restoration ushers in peace to my soul. 

So, if I can’t tell you what it’s going to look like, what is the point of all of this?  Of this late night rambling?  Well, the point is to implore you to seek God about these things.  To draw near to Him and believe that restoration is coming.  To dare to raise your eyes above the wounds of the moment to the refreshment that is coming.  And accept it.  Don’t turn away from what God has in store.  Don’t turn aside from who you were created to be and the role He has destined you to play in His story.   He isn’t finished with you yet.    And He isn’t finished with me either.  There is hope beyond the emptiness, beyond the chaos, beyond the burnout.  

Cling to that, my friends.  I know I am.