“And after
you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to
his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and
establish you.”
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
In High
School, as a member of my school’s marching band, I played the flute and
piccolo. as a member of my church’s
youth group, I was on the praise team and often played my flute on a Wednesday
night. I loved to worship with my
talents, wholeheartedly! It was truly a
joy in my life that I have always treasured.
After having
my son at the age of 19 out of wedlock, I struggled to provide for him and made
the difficult decision to pawn my flute and piccolo in order to get diapers and
formula. The enemy had taken so many
things from me, one by one. I have cried
countless tears over the loss of so many things that had brought joy and were
now gone. Fourteen years have passed
since then and God has been restoring me little by little.
Last year at
Revive Indiana, we were in an evening service when I saw Kaila for the first
time. She was playing her violin and worshiping the Lord with such joy and passion.
It brought back a flood of memories of the joy that worship brought to
God as I delighted in Him and the music He had given me. I remember tearing up as she danced around
with her violin as free as a bird with the sweet melody coming from her violin. God gave me a beautiful vision that night of
being able to play my flute with her and worshiping once again in complete
fullness of joy that only comes with the presence of God.
January, 6
months later, I received a flute in the mail.
It was ordered from Amazon. It
isn’t the most expensive flute on the market but it plays beautifully! As I opened the Amazon box, I saw the
case. It was a black case with an
embroidered design on the front. I didn’t
read it right away but hurried to open it and assemble my new flute. I played it for a minute, testing the keys and
admiring the shine on the nickel plating.
After the initial excitement calmed down I noticed an engraving on the
flute. It had a beautiful design and in
the middle it says, “GLORY”. I looked
again at the front of my case and in the embroidered design was again the word,
“GLORY”. I posted a picture on Facebook
and captioned it, “Restored Glory”. God
had restored what was once taken from me.
It took
about 5 months before I had the courage to open it up and actually play
music. However, one evening in May, we
were home on a simple average night. My
husband had asked me numerous times about the flute that was “just sitting
there” and when would I finally play it.
I picked it up and put on some praise and worship music. My fingers fumbled as I began to remember the
notes and the sounds and my muscles began to find the positions they were once
very familiar with over 15 years ago.
The memories flooded back in and I wept as I played, giving my hurt and
pain to God for Him to heal my broken heart.
Then, this
past weekend, God called me to come back into worship. Kaila was at the Revive Fort Wayne engage day
on Saturday. When I saw her, she gave me
a hug and confirmed that she would be playing in the evening service. The first thought through my head was, “I
have a flute now!” I briefly told her
this story and asked if she would mind if I played with her. She had no problem and was excited about
it! I talked to a few others and ran
home to get my flute.
That
evening, not every note was exactly perfect during practice. I wasn’t the best of the best, not that I
ever was. However, my fingers remembered
their places and my heart remembered the joy and freedom of lifting what you
have before the Lord and the joy and pleasure He takes in our “sacrifice of
praise”.
I challenge each of you to seek Him with your whole heart. As you do, He will restore you and bring you to that perfect place in Him. All we have to do is come to Him and He will do the restoration. Give Him your past and He will give you a bright and shining future!
