Overcoming a Shutdown

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If my computer shuts down unexpectedly while I’m online, when I sign back on, in the corner of my screen there appears a button that says “restore.”  This button is designed to take you back to the tabs and sites you were visiting or working on before the crash or shut down occurred.  It is there to bring you back to the place where you once were.

Have you ever experienced a shutdown moment in life?  A time when it seems that the walls came crashing in and you lost sight of where you were?  Has there ever been a time when you just need a refreshing?  You needed to step back, evaluate everything presently before you, and start again?  I’m pretty sure we can all raise our hand to attest to being in similar situations at one time or another.  A time when you just felt depleted and needed to be restored.

Restoration is right up God’s alley.  Everything in the Bible points mankind to His holy desire to see people restored.  God cares about us.  Not only the spiritual us, but He cares about all of us.  Every tidbit in life, He is well aware of.  Many people only look to God in the big and dramatic areas of life, but God is concerned about your well-being in the whole of your life.

John once wrote, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth,” (3 John 2).  I believe that John wanted us to walk out the restored life in our daily living.  Not just claiming it for our salvation (which, needless to say, is very important), but to have it as an active mindset that goes before us and prospers us in every part of our daily living.

Slumps are all around us, but we are not called to be slump dwellers.  We have a choice of how to handle the strains and afflictions we face in this life.  Peter gives us this advice:

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1 Peter 5:6-10)

In these few verses, Peter doesn’t hide the adversities one faces, but he highlights what to do with them.  First, he states to humble yourself before God and let Him exalt you (vs. 6).  When God is the one exalting you, you are restored!  Next, in verse 7, he tells his readers what to do with all those cares that are weighing you down, all those things that are making you feel like you are in a shutdown mode.  He says to get rid of them.  And, we are not to dispose of them any kind of way.  We are to give these burdens to God because He is the One who truly cares for you.  Once again, if God is caring for you and helping you to deal with your burdens, you are in a restored position.

There are things that can try to hinder and rob you of the restored life.  Following the above two verses, we see some of the afflictions and dealing with the enemy that people face and how we are to be on guard against the advances of it and be steadfast in our faith through it all. We have a responsibility to protect our restored status while pushing forth in the faith.

And lastly, in verse 10, Peter lets us know that though there may be suffering at times, it will never compare to the glory that we inherit by our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is He that will see us through.  It is He that will make us perfect.  It is He that will “stablish, strengthen, settle you.”  It is through Him you can be restored!

In our everyday life, as well as in the time to come after we pass from here, in Christ, we live a restored life.  Once in a while, we may feel that we have been knocked off our rocker, but remember who you are and whose you are.  In Him, we don’t have to stay in that “knocked off” state.  Follow Peter’s advice and give what you are dealing with to God and ask Him to hit the restore button in your life.

God wants you to be blessed in Him.  He wants you, more than anyone else, to live a successful Christian life.  Let Him in your world, your circumstances, and your situations, and lean on Him for complete restoration and healing.  He will pick you up, polish you off, and make you like new again.

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Heal

Scabs were a fascination for me in my youth. I had a bad habit where right when the healing would be almost complete, I would pick at the scab and pick at it again until it reopened, prohibiting it from properly healing in a timely fashion.

In life, we can find ourselves doing the same thing with the hurts of all nature. And as easy as it is to pick, we can choose to leave it alone and let God do what He does best.

Allow for healing. What bitterness is so precious that we fight to hold on to it? What hurt must we keep rehearsing in our mind that we won’t let go of it? Allowing these to take up precious space in our hearts will not make room for His healing to take place when we can let it go and trust God with the outcome. Continually nursing all the wrongs prohibits the growth of all that is good.

We choose what we strengthen: bitterness and hurt or good and healing. We have the choice to bring into greater focus the things that will help us overcome those tumultuous thoughts or keep us bound in them. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Where your mind and your thinking lead, the heart will follow. Follow those beautiful things that lead to healing. Why let that which is corrupt ruin your day, your week, your life?

No one can understand like you what your heart is feeling (Proverbs 14:10). No one can discredit the hurt one has experienced. At the same time, no one but you can refuse to sit in the pity party, celebrating the misery.

Allow for healing. Bring all the heaviness of heart, all those things that speak against wholeness and recovery, all the hurt to Jesus, who promises that in Him, we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29; read Matthew 11:28-30).

Why suffer as one who has no help? Jesus is your help for healing, and He is waiting to lead you into complete restoration. He is the cure for whatever you are holding onto, and He is the cure for whatever you are going through.

Focus your heart on what is good, and don’t leave Jesus out of the healing process. There is not an infirmity He hasn’t faced and experienced (Hebrews 4:15).

He knows how much it hurts, but He also knows how to bring about wholeness. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Come, that you may be healed.

Letting go of bitterness and hurt – sometimes it is easier said than done. But when we do, we allow for God’s healing to come and saturate our souls.