{"id":27224,"date":"2015-08-14T00:25:44","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T04:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=27224"},"modified":"2015-08-14T06:30:40","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T10:30:40","slug":"when-god-restores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/08\/14\/when-god-restores\/","title":{"rendered":"When God Restores"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20533\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg\" alt=\"encouragementbloggraphicromans15\" width=\"425\" height=\"304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg 425w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his previous possessions. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. \u00a0They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. \u00a0Each one gave him a qesitah and a gold earring. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">So the Lord blessed the last part of Job\u2019s life more than the first. \u00a0He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. \u00a0He also had seven sons and three daughters. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">No women as beautiful as Job\u2019s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Then Job died, old and full of days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">Job 42:10-17 HCSB<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">* \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u271e \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 *<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You have the patience of Job!&#8221; she says to me. \u00a0{I don&#8217;t really.} \u00a0I think of all the things and people that Job lost and I wonder if he ever had a full-blown temper tantrum&#8230;I know I have. \u00a0And, like Job, God has never left me. \u00a0As I watched my baby girl leave today for college, I felt loss, sadness, and despair. \u00a0But I know that she is as close as a phone call and only a day trip away in the car. \u00a0As parents, it is hard to watch our children leave after so many years of living with us. \u00a0I have had people say to me, &#8220;At least you have two more at home.&#8221; \u00a0And, while this is true, the ones that have moved out can never be replaced. \u00a0But our lives and homes are restored to a new normal.<\/p>\n<p>Job 42:10 says that after Job had prayed for his friends, that God made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before! \u00a0God is a God of restoration! \u00a0He doesn&#8217;t just <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>replace<\/strong><\/span> what we have lost&#8230;He wants to restore us. \u00a0When we, His children, suffer loss He doesn&#8217;t just quickly replace it with something else&#8230;that is not His way. \u00a0He wants to heal our hearts and minister to us. \u00a0He goes straight to our heart and heals it. \u00a0Obviously, He did this for Job. \u00a0Job&#8217;s friends had really done some awful things to him and, if \u00a0God had not intervened, Job would have hung on every negative word and action and maybe even blamed them instead of the real enemy.<\/p>\n<p>You know, God could have replaced all his friends with new ones but that wouldn&#8217;t have accomplished the healing that God wanted for his child. \u00a0And I am pretty sure that the resentment towards the old ones would have still been there, too. \u00a0Instead prayer began to heal Job&#8217;s heart and he began to pray earnestly for those that had really hurt him. \u00a0This is the moment it all changed&#8230;Job began to love his enemies. \u00a0<em><span style=\"color: #008000;\">This is restoration!<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 And God gave Job a blessing.<\/p>\n<p>I can safely say that most of us have experienced loss. \u00a0Some more painful than others, but pain is still pain. \u00a0And God is still the God of restoration. \u00a0He wants to begin a new thing in our lives. He wants to replace bitterness and heal our hearts so that we, too, can pray for those who have wronged us or taken something from us. \u00a0Let&#8217;s begin today! \u00a0Just wait and see what your Father is going to do&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #008000;\">* \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0\u271e \u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0~ \u00a0*<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Let us pray<\/em><\/span>: Dear God, You are a loving Father and You care so much for each one of us. \u00a0You cry over each loss we endure. \u00a0Lord, I ask that You take away any bitterness and anger that we are holding onto and replace it with joy that only You can give. \u00a0Thank You for loving us so much that You want to not only give us more than we lost, but You want to heal and restore us to a new person though this. \u00a0Help us to forgive those who have wronged us and teach us to pray for them. \u00a0Thank You for Jesus, Who took all our sins with Him on the Cross and left them there to die. \u00a0We love You and we praise You. In Jesus&#8217; name, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his previous possessions. \u00a0All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. \u00a0They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. \u00a0Each one gave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":20533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6228],"tags":[6998,1287,425,9271,480,2748,9273,589,9272,791],"class_list":["post-27224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-encouragement-2","tag-encouragement-blog","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-restores","tag-healing","tag-job","tag-job-4210-17","tag-kim-spring","tag-loving-your-enemies","tag-prayer","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/encouragementbloggraphicromans15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-756","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27224"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27231,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27224\/revisions\/27231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}