Restore Your Hearts Unto God

My friends, will you take a brief tour with me of the Scriptures—a tour for the heart? Will you come with me as I remind us about essential truths of the Word of God? Let these serve as a reminder to you and to me. Let these serve as a reminder that you and I serve a great God. A reminder that He is in control. A reminder that He is the one working all things together for our good and His glory. A reminder that He is willing in His heart to be near to us. 

You have suffered. But you need God all the more now. Your suffering threatens to distance you from God, to be afraid to trust Him. But He wants you for Himself. He wants you to know Him and love Him and for your face to be radiant with His glorious presence in your life. He does not want you to have to drag through life, but to be faithful to Him—and allow that to be your true joy. 

God is faithful to the uttermost to save us. 

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

If your heart has felt darkened with grief resulting in false thoughts against God, the evil one would love to make you think that those thoughts now have forever distanced you from God. The evil one would love to strip you of any hint of nearness to God—to make you assume that God cannot restore. But, my friends, this is what God does: He takes those who have not and makes us those who have. He takes those who are not and makes us those who are. What I mean is this: God died to save us from our sin, from ourselves, and from the evil of our hearts. And He is powerful to do it. Don’t allow any thoughts you have had make you feel disqualified from the faith. For, we are all sinners in need of God’s grace. And He is able to save, no matter how far we have strayed. Return—draw near to God. And He is able and willing to save you.

God is willing to draw us near in our suffering. 

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. (James 4:8a)

God is clear that when we have become stained by the world, the recourse is to draw near to God as we are. Perhaps you have lost the fear of God from before your eyes. Perhaps you have rebelled. Perhaps you have thought Him not good. Perhaps you have ignored His word to you. Perhaps you have thought God against you, and your hearts has pulled far away from him. And now, perhaps you think: what next? Draw near to God as you are. And He will draw near to you. 

God is kind and patient with faith that is faltering.

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” (John 21:15a)

Do you know about the disciple Peter who denied God three times before men? Do you know what Jesus asked him three times? He asked: Do you love me? Jesus restored Peter by drawing the truth out of Peter’s heart’s faith and making Peter’s faith the overriding reality of his life. Peter was repentant and desirous of restoration. What about your heart? You have strayed. But what is in your heart? Is there remorse? Is there love for God—even if you are presently afraid to fully trust Him? Ask God to bring out the faith of your heart; He will take what is good and pleasing to Him and work with you to grow it. Even if faltering, go to Him for restoration. And He will draw out faith from you and begin to make faith the overriding reality of your inner person. God is willing to restore those who are faltering. 

God is withstanding of our questions. 

O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? (Habakkuk 1:2)

The Bible is full of examples of the people of God asking questions of God. God knows that this world is full of suffering, evil, and pain. He knows that these things grate against the very fabric of our souls—He made us. And He knows that we have tears stored within ourselves that we don’t even know how to cry until we come before our Maker and ask the questions of our hearts. These questions are the epitome of humility. They are the cries of a low, needy heart facing God and saying: “You are the only one who can help me with my sorrow.”

God is Fatherly with us. 

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)

God takes the questioning heart and has compassion upon us. He desires for us to lay out before Him the genuine feelings of our hearts. He leads us through these feelings in a fatherly, compassionate manner. He loves to show compassion to His children, for His compassion makes us rejoice that we can be called the sons and daughters of God. God is willing to meet the cries of our hearts with the compassion of a perfect heavenly Father. 

God condescends to be near to us. 

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

God is able to be this compassionate, this caring, this loving, this good, and this wonderful as we have seen in the preceding verses because He is God. God is supremely happy within Himself. And yet, He wants us. He wants our hearts. He wants our presence. And for that, we can be supremely happy. God’s ways are higher than ours. And ultimately, we must come to peace within ourselves that both God is good and we have experienced life-altering loss. We do that by saying that God transcends. His ways are higher. Who are we to talk back to God? Who are we to say how this world is to be run? Were we there when the earth was formed? Were we there when God set His eternal counsels and decrees for creation? Oh friends, the God who condescended to die on the cross for our sins is also the transcendent God who commands our worship. We must remember that He is far beyond our capacities of understanding. This makes Him the supreme God worthy of our full trust. You might not be at this point of faith in God, but go on the journey of faith with Him—and you will see the truth and comfort of God’s transcendence. 

God is coming back for us to take us with Himself. 

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

We are commanded in Scripture to comfort each other with words of God’s second coming. And so, I do. Be comforted to know that He is coming to set all things right. Only Jesus has the authority and the worthiness to set the world aright. Only He has the majesty to come and correct the sin that was issued into His world. Only He has the power to come and make all things new. And we will be forever with this God. That is our supreme comfort and joy—that the God to whom we have committed our lives, hearts, minds, and souls will be ushering us into His eternal presence without end. Friends—without end. Be comforted and comfort your friends with these words. 

Please do not think that a heart that has strayed from God is the heart that must stay separated from God. Has He not shown Himself supremely compassionate and restorative throughout the Scriptures? It does not take long to think of how fatherly, generous, and comforting God has been to His people throughout human history. He has always been there for us. And He is willing to restore you, my friend. 

Lianna is author of Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss (Hope Mommies, 2019). More of her writing can be found at her website.

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