Monday, February 18, 2019

Dear God,

How long does it take to renovate, renew and restore a soul?  This question comes to me as I work long and hard daily to renovate, renew and restore a 200-year-old house.  I have been working for nearly three weeks on a closet and a bathroom and neither are yet done.  How long does it take to renovate, renew and restore a soul?

O Lord, do you ever want to give up on us?  Do you ever want to throw in the towel?  Do you ever think we will never learn?  As I pour over the scriptures in my daily devotional reading, it seems the Israelites never learned.  They kept making the same mistakes.  They would take your offerings, enjoy them and then turn to other gods.  That's what we do too, isn't it?

We need much work, O Father.  We need daily cleansing.  We need to sweep out all the cobwebs of neglect and lack of trust.  We need to fall at your feet to acknowledge our sin, our unwillingness to follow your best route for our lives.  We need to surrender all our gods that never ever take into account what is best for us.  Only you, O God, care deeply for our inner lives.

Teach us
the way
of faith,
Heavenly Father.
Return us
to our
first love.
Forgive our
recalcitrant ways.
Make us new
once again,
I pray.

Love, Andrea