Be restored
The other morning I was at Lake Constance and saw a large seagull standing in the lawn outside the window. Strange, I’ve never seen that before. I went outside and walked over to it – I was standing about three feet in front of it. A really big seagull, almost two feet in height! And it didn’t fly away. Strange. It also looked a bit disheveled. I left it alone, but kept an eye on it for an hour – it was standing in the lawn, preening itself.
After about an hour and a half, I realized that it was gone. I was curious and went out. I saw it swimming a little further away in the water towards the shore, it didn’t look well. It was looking for a shallow spot to come ashore. But there were coots there with their chicks and they found this threatening and attacked the seagull. It struggled to defend itself, made it to the shore and the coots left it alone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the gull anymore because there were bushes in the way.
Interesting. Obviously it had flown away too early and had not yet recovered well enough to fly. This put it in an awkward situation with the coots, who felt threatened by it.
Don’t we feel the same way quite often? That we are battered and don’t take enough time in the turmoil of our everyday lives to let God restore us and recharge our batteries? And then someone comes along and causes us even more problems?
There are times when I want to shout to the world and to life: Leave me alone! There are times when I’m in a mess and don’t know where my head is. That’s when I want life to be simple, comfortable and tidy. Do you sometimes long for that too? Has God promised us that he will make our lives simple, comfortable and tidy? No, I don’t know of any scripture that says that!
But God has promised us that we will always find peace and joy with him, even in the midst of the turbulence of our everyday lives!
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19
Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks. 7 Then God’s peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
We should seek and find joy and peace in him. When we spend time with him, allow him to encourage us and let him restore our perspective with gratitude, we can go into everyday life with renewed strength.
Do we know that we will find restoration through him? Do we know it, but hardly ever make time for it? And even when we spend time with God, are we only complaining about our circumstances? Or do we let go of our problems and let him tell us what he thinks about them? It is so good to see his perspective, his heavenly view, because it is loving, powerful, comforting and it brings peace, joy and therefore strength!
Do we recognize whether we are truly restored after prayer or quiet time? Do we remain calm and patient in God’s presence until we have joy in our hearts again? Or do we think, after a quick prayer, that we should be okay now, but are soon shaken up again?
God is in us through the Holy Spirit and so his peace couldn’t be any closer! He wants to be in contact with us. If we are attentive and listen to him, he will restore us, encourage us, strengthen us and give us wisdom. Everything we need.
I pray that we spend so much time with God – regularly – that we go into everyday life with peace, joy and strength!
By the way, I also prayed for the seagull, that God would restore it so that it could fly freely again!
