Not Patched Up

The verse for today is very well known to so many of us, but recently I was struck particularly by two specific words. ‘completely’ and ’whole.’ The truth is clear, when God is at work, His desire is to do a full and complete work, to achieve what we might call a ‘proper’ job. His nature is to restore what has been damaged and neglected, and He wants to bring wholeness to every broken place. He is not a God who is satisfied with a partial fix, He doesn’t settle for a patched up, short term solution. He cares too much for all He has made, to desire less than the absolute best for us.

I think these two words jumped out at me so strongly because it seems to me, we live in a world that easily settles for a quick patched-up sort of solution to any problem. I can’t help but notice the potholes in the road that get a little infilling, which looks OK but often fails in the next winter frost, or the pavement that resembles a patchwork quilt of concrete slabs, bitumen squares, and random backfilled trenches.

Some people are sadly led into taking out a payday loan when they face financial difficulties and others try instant remedies offered by adverts on the internet for health problems. Short term solutions are everywhere around us and they often make matters worse, not better. There seems to be a lack of resources, vision, or determination to work towards a more full and complete solution.

God’s way is totally different from the world’s way. He wants to heal and restore His precious children completely. He longs for us to be free, absolutely free so we can be our true God-created self (John 8:36). Just patching us up is never on His agenda. He will invest all the time needed and is only limited by how much we choose to cooperate with this process. And He has endless resources which He makes available to any who want to be completely and wholly transformed and healed.

Living, as we do, surrounded by the world’s ways, can easily tempt us to follow suit. We can fall into the pattern of trying to patch up our problems with temporary solutions; solutions that are short term and don’t truly deal with the foundational issue, Following in this way we end up on a desperate treadmill of  looking for another quick fix when the last one fails.

But God shows us that only radical change will truly resolve our problems, whatever they are. Full resolution may be costly, it requires genuine understanding of the root of the issue, a sincere desire to be how God created us to be, and perseverance to do all that is necessary to allow God to work in us. Only in this way will we achieve the fullest most complete resolution of our issues.

Our God is all sufficient and His ways are perfect. He heals and restores absolutely when we trust in His ways. If you feel you have settled for less than His full restoration in your life and want more then, wherever you are on your own journey with the Lord, you might like to pray this prayer.