“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” -Psalms 51:12
God is a God of restoration. He does not choose us the way the world choses us. If a man walked into a job interview, covered with the stench of alcohol and dressed in tattered old clothing, would he get the job? How many colleges do you think would admit an applicant that was illiterate? The world does not accept, or venture to embrace what we could be, but rather what we are. It loves those who by reason of strength, intelligence, or good fortune have exalted themselves above the rest. God’s selection process is somewhat different, his cry is “whosoever will.”
Imagine with me for a moment if the leader of ISIS walked into your church on Sunday. Someone known world over for hunting and killing Christians. His fame, his person, everything that he is, centers on his zeal. What if this man walked into your church Sunday morning? What if he strolled right up to the pulpit, opened the Bible and began to read Matthew chapter seven? What would you do? Would you believe him? Would you be terrified of him? Do you think it can’t happen? It has already happened. Paul was a man that vehemently persecuted the church, imprisoned preachers of the gospel; he made it his mission to destroy Christianity. Then one day the Lord Jesus stopped him in his tracks, and changed his life forever; are we not thankful that God’s selection process is somewhat different than the worlds? Would you select Saul to be a pastor, or leader of your church? If God can take a man such as Paul, a man that killed Christians. If he can sanctify this man, if he can make a: preacher, teacher, minister, apostle, out of this man. What can he do for you in your life? He does not see us as the world does. You might see a filthy, ruined, broken life. He sees a white, clean, complete testimony. You see a sin enslaved prisoner. He sees a prime candidate to be an ambassador for him, and a preacher of the ministry of reconciliation. A person that can proclaim to all who will hear “he did it for me and he can do it for you!” Simply put, Jesus can change your life, if you give it to him. Restoration is not about what something is, but what it can be. What it should be. God wants to bring us back to complete fellowship with Him. Pure, perfect, sinless fellowship; divorced from the world and married to Christ.
Any person who gets up from an altar of prayer, after they have truly repented, will not be the same person who knelt to begin with. That’s why it’s called conversion, and after conversion God will put his Spirit in your heart if you ask Him. If you yield your life to Him. His Holy Spirit will burn out the “want-to” part of you. That part of you that naturally “wants-to” disobey God. It will take that part out and put in a new “want-to.” A want-to that wants what he wants, and desires what he desires. It will make you holy. That’s the gospel, and it is for whosoever will, not for whosoever is qualified. You don’t get your life in order so you can come to God; you come to God and he can put your life in order.
