OCTOBER 24 Restoration And Animation! “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his names sake.” Psalms 23:3 Restoration And Animation suggests a prior condition as well as lingering life. When He restoreth my soul He not only reestablishes me to my condition prior to my loss but He stimulates what life is yet remaining. He bringeth my soul back; either, from its errors or from its wandering and restores it to a favorable position in Christ out of which it was even departing or fainting away. He revives or comforts me. In the midst of this restoration He shall convert my soul and He will turn me, not only from my sin and ignorance, but from every false confidence and every deceitful refuge. Those salacious sanctuaries that I fabricate out of my own self-deception which fail to keep me in times of trials and distressing travails. Although restored to a more advantageous position my He does not leave me there but he leadedth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. While wandering in the wilderness and in the deserts of Palestine there are no raised paths, and what paths exist are merely tracks; sometimes there are six or eight paths running unevenly along-side each other. Without a guide there is a propensity to lose your way. And lest I should lose so great a happiness, His goodness is pleased to both direct and guide me in the right course of life, and to reprove me when I go astray; just as a shepherd brings back his wandering sheep and keep them from getting lost among craggy, and untrodden paths and leads them into plain and easy ways, where they find true rest and true safety. Observe, that the plural is used -- the paths of righteousness. Some believers may overlook the blessing of sanctification, and yet to a thoroughly renewed heart this is one of the sweetest gifts He gives us for if we could be saved from His wrath, and yet remain unregenerate, impenitent sinners, we would not be saved as we desire, for we mainly and chiefly pant to be saved from sin and led in the way of holiness. All this is done out of pure free grace; for his names sake. It is to the honor of our great Shepherd that we should be a holy people.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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