Restored Losses
Mark 10:29-30 [NKJV] 29 So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, 30 "who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life.”
This is a promise to restore our losses, when that loss is because of Jesus or the Gospel.
Job lost a LOT – all of his children, servants (except a few), livestock and health. God did not restore those children, that livestock, and those servants. Yet we are told that God restored his losses.
Job 42:10,12,16 [NKJV] 10 And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before…12 Now the LORD blessed the latter [days] of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. ... 16 After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren [for] four generations.
David lost his first son from Bathsheba. God did not restore that child. But he and Bathsheba were comforted with a new son – Solomon.
Mark 8:35 [NKJV] For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.
This is a promise that if we give up our lives, we will get those lives back. But the dead in Christ, those martyred for the Word, did not come back to their mortal lives. We give our lives to Christ not only in martyrdom for the Gospel, but also when we give it over to doing the will of God, instead of our own. He doesn’t give us back the hours given over to service.
Mark 10:29-30 [NKJV] 29 So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's, 30 "who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time--houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions--and in the age to come, eternal life.”
Just like God replaced Job’s children, herds, and money; just like Solomon replaced the dead child, all that we give up for and over to the service of God and Christ, to the work of the Gospel, is replaced by something entirely different.
So, when we read in Luke 6:38 [NKJV] "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." We can be thankful that God promises to out give us. But we should not expect that we will get back exactly what we give.
We might give money and get back an abundance of hope, rather than a winning lottery ticket. For example, we may give forgiveness but get back an abundance of patience, rather than reciprocal forgiveness. We might give comfort and get back an abundance of trust.
God is not in the business of restoring exactly what we lost. He is in the business of replacing what we lost with more or better, or both. He is in the business of accepting our meager, human, temporary lives, money, hearts, hopes and sacrifices, and replacing them with something of infinitely greater value.
When we get this, we see something different than a health and wealth Gospel in reading Mark 10:29-30.
If your children or your parents refuse to have anything to do with you because of your faith, God may restore them to you, or He may give you a congregation with scores of young people who are like your own children, or older women who “mother” you. You may lose your child to cancer and then adopt a family of three out of the Foster Care system who need loving parents.
You may lose your dream job but gain one that allows you more time to serve God and His people.
I guess my point is that restoration from God is often not a return of what was lost, but a replacement with something God, in His infinite wisdom and perfect plan, has chosen instead. And we have to trust that – trust Him – when we oh so badly want back that child, that marriage, that job, etc.
Matthew 7:11 [NKJV] If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
The restoration is gonna be good. God promises. We just have to be open to His vision of restoration for us.
I welcome your comments and questions. You can write me in the chat or any time at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org