02/05/2022
*SEEK DAILY (NBC)*
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
*GOD RESTORES*
*Memory Verse:* "Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors." *Isaiah 14:2, NIV*
*Isaiah 14:1-6*
14:1 The LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
14:2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as men servants and maidservants in the LORD'S land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.
14:3 On the day the LORD gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bo***ge,
14:4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!
14:5 The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
14:6 which in anger struck down peoples with unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.
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A Yoruba adage says: "When we use the right hand to discipline a child, we use the left hand to comfort the child."
The wisdom in this adage is that disciplining a child is not an hopeless effort. Parents don't discipline to permanently disown the child. Discipline is aimed at bringing the child to his right state of mind, bringing the child to a level moral of soundness.
So, when a child positively yields to correction, the parents will pardon and restore the relationship between them and the child.
In the same sense, God deals with the children of Israel. In many chapters of His book, Prophet Isaiah exposed the sin of the people of Judah and he also declared God's impending wrath.
According to the prophet, there was no way the people of Judah could escape the wrath of God. But after God might have punished them, He will also pardon them and restore them back to their land.
God never desires that any person perishes in sin. No matter the level you might have fallen to in unrighteousness, God is still willing that you return to Him.
This is why He surrounds you with different channels through which He is calling you to return because He is longing to restore you.
If you return, God will restore!
*Insight:* No sinner is beyond redemption.
*Prayer:* My heavenly Father, keep drawing me closer and closer to you perpetually in Jesus name!
*RBT Passage: 1 Chronicles 13-16*
