We all wear down over time. God showed us how to take a break and come back strong. It happens when we sleep each night. Our bodies rejuvenate. It happens when we take a day off each week. We all need a hard reset every once in awhile.
And I love that David says in Psalm 23:3 that the Lord “restores my soul.” Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. My thoughts and feelings definitely need to be restored sometimes.
The cool thing to me is that when you break the word “restore” down, you get two words:
1) Rest. When we rest and the the Lord restores our souls, He gives our brain and our hearts a break from their normal stress and strain of life. And who doesn’t need that occasionally?
Ever had a business meeting… or a toddler… that made your brain feel like mush by the end of the day? Rest helps your mind reset and be ready to go again.
Rest is essential to being restored. Restoration can’t take place unless you take a break. You can’t restore an old car or an old building without shutting them down and taking them out of commission for awhile. The same is true of us. We have to stop and rest to be fully restored.
2) Ore. Honestly, this is the one that excites me because I didn’t see it at first. When God takes us through a season of restoration, He mines out the good stuff which has been deposited in us, but has been hidden by other junk over time.
We have gems… jewels… precious metal… thoughts, and beliefs, and feelings, and ideas, and dreams which we would never really realize are there if it wasn’t that He mines them out of us during times of restoration.
I wonder how many of us miss out on extra strength of mind, will and emotions because we will not rest. And I wonder how many dreams, ideas and feelings we never discover because we will not be still long enough for them to be uncovered by all the clutter of life?
I’m in a season of life right now that has offered me extra rest and extra mining of ores in me. And I love how He restores. Let me encourage you to get a good night’s sleep most nights… take one 24-hour period off most weeks… take a vacation most years… and take an extended break most decades… all for the purpose of restoration.
allenchapin.com 
Again, I needed this. I wept when I read it. I so often feel like I never get a break, and honestly I don’t. I’m a mother of theee in college trying to take care of house, husband, family, and faith. I often lose sight of the strength He’s given me to overcome because I am too busy. Unfortunately, I haven’t completely learned how to take a break when I can’t take a break, but I am definitely trying to be more deliberate with my time with God. Every day I feel more dependent on Him and like I just can’t make it through my day if I don’t at least hear “I love you” from Him.
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