Sometimes When We Lose, God Gives It Back

Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Deuteronomy 30:1 (Read 1-13) NIV

Good Morning Girlfriends:

Back in 2005 when I had the house fire, it was at the end of January, we were forced to leave our home because it was unsafe to return to. Christmas was behind us, with all of our gifts being taken from the fire, as well as all of our belongings, things I had from my childhood, my children's baby books and most of our family pictures, but what bothered me the most was losing all of our beautiful fur babies in the fire. I remember as I had my two youngest girls wrapped in a comforter, sitting outside in the driveway, and my teenage daughter was there as well, I kept repeating "my boys, my boys," and they were my two big fluffy cats that I cherished.

Another part of my life was watching my mother go through what she did with my father, being married forty-eight years, she had lived a hard life of which was lived in much fear, uncertainty, and frustration. She stuck with him through all the hardships until the end, and three years prior to his passing, he had given his heart to the Lord. She had said that the last three years of their life together was much better than the first forty-five years. There is something I would like to share with you girlfriends, it was three years after my fathers' passing that God brought a dear, lovely Christian man into her life, he was a gentle soul, and gave her five years of laughter, happiness, before he went on to be with the Lord. Like I have shared with you before, my mother is now seventy-eight years old and she is re-married to another wonderful Christian man, who will take very good care of her in every way for the rest of her life.

In the Bible, it tells us in Job 42:10 that, "The Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." For the many years of hurt and hard times my mom had went through, she had kept a good attitude, and God blessed her in her remaining years with two wonderful Christian husbands. God did the same for me after having the house fire, my family was restored to a new home, to us it was new, and we were started over with everything that we needed to get back on our feet. It was about one to two years after the fire, I had the privilege of accepting a beautiful grey fluffy cat from a lady that was giving him away, and he was the gift that God gave back to me for the one that I lost.

Girlfriends, not only does God give back to us physically things we have lost, but spiritually as well. When we are lost out in the world, not living for Jesus, He restores us spiritually when we give our heart to Him. 2 Peter 5:10 tells us, "After you have suffered a little while, our God, who is full of kindness through Christ, will give you his eternal glory. He will personally come and pick you up, and set you firmly in place, and make you stronger than ever. You see, if it wasn't for all of the struggles that we go through in life, we wouldn't have the strength to keep pushing on. God is always building us even when it seems like he is breaking us, but we are becoming stronger because of the trials.

Here are two more scripture I would like to leave with you to meditate on. 1 John 1:9 says, "But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong." (This is why Jesus died on the cross to wash away our sins). 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that even though we go through hard times, "No. But I am with you; that is all you need. My power shows up best in weak people." Meaning His grace is sufficient for us in any hard times. No matter what we go through physically and spiritually, God will give back, He will restore to us what we have lost. Praise God for that promise!

Let's Pray,

Precious Jesus, I thank you for walking with us during our hard times in life, I thank you that you are there to listen to see and to answer when we call out to you. Lord, I thank you for your strength that we have to lean upon, and I thank you Lord that you are the great restorer of our souls. When we give our lives over to you, you lift us up and make us a new person and raise us to be greater than we were when we lived in the world. You give back to us in so many wonderful ways with your love, kindness, patience, strength, mercy and grace. Father, help us to live for you, the way you show us as we read your word each day, and if we stumble and fall, help us to get right back up and dust ourselves off and keep on going, as we continue to let you work things out in our lives, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Be blessed sweet ladies and be a blessing to others as you pass the blessings on.