Shalom Restored

At a conference I attended in January we were encouraged to think through the idea of Shalom, peace.  What does your peace place looks like?  What did it look like before sin entered the world?  It was a place of beauty, rest and renewal.

But we all know that shalom as God originally designed it to be has been shattered.  But there are times when in our own world that shalom has been shattered.  

Disappointment,

Loss,

Betrayal,

Crushed dreams,

Broken relationships,

Unmet desires of our heart

The list goes on………………

So how do we deal with that broken peace?

I feel like there is a journey the Lord leads us on as we make our way from our peace being shattered until we see it restored.

For a long time after we lost Seth it was very difficult to sing and prayer was more of an act of obedience than a reflection of my closeness with the Lord.  Many songs I simply could not sing without tears, I could barely whisper words, and so for a season my cried out while others around me sang.

The Lord and I began a journey that was filled with many questions, a few of those have been answered, many I will see revealed when I meet Jesus face to face.

It was a season of seeking out his truth, repeating it over and over, and clinging to it.

Somewhere in that season he brought me to a place of restoration, a place where I could sing again, a place where I could enter into prayer and communicate more beyond cries of desperate pleas and repeating his Word back to him.

Restoration became the reality at some point.  Seeing how the Lord was picking up the pieces of my broken heart and molding it into a heart like His, a heart hurting along side those who were hurting.  Seeing how the Lord has placed others into my lives who were broken and hurting but did not know the peace I know.

Restoration is a beautiful thing, but when those pieces are shattered it is hard to imagine how the Lord will use it for a thing of beauty again.  But friends I know he does! keep trusting, keep reminding yourself that he is faithful, keep repeating his promises.  One day you will sing again dear friends.