Before you type either of these words into google to find the actual definition, I will save you the trouble and tell you that restoration is the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition. That's pretty close to what I always thought of, and there is something that bugged me about it. I would use the word in my messages, knowing it is a good thing and feeling thankful that we have a Daddy who longs to give us healing and restoration. Still something didn't sit right with me about the mental picture I sometimes got when I heard, read or even used the word restoration. Now, when we consider the definition of restoration, is that similar to what you think of when you hear the word recovery as well? Are these two words interchangeable, or almost so, in your mind? They have been in mine. And they do mean similar things. The definition of recovery is a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength, or the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.
Last night it occurred to me what didn't sit right, what bugged me about both of these words. They both have associations with the idea of getting back what we had before, of a return to what was. And I can't speak for you, but that's about the last thing that I want, when it comes to my addictions, to go back to what it was like before. I didn't wake up one sunny, wonderful day with the birds singing and butterflies all around me feeling like life couldn't get any better and just decide to become a drunk and drug addict for fun. I bet no one ever has. Our addiction is a symptom of the problem, and my problem existed long before I tried to solve it with chemicals. My life was miserable and filled with fear and pain. I wanted desperately to change the way I felt and to escape my perception of reality. So, why on earth would I want to get that back?
But if I feel that way, why do I use the words so often in my messages? Because my spirit understood that when Daddy's Spirit speaks to us of recovery and restoration, it's a good thing. So what is it that I, and perhaps you, Dear Reader, might be missing in our conceptions of these words and ideas? Let's look at them again. Returning something to a former owner, place, or condition; a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength, or the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.
Recovery, the second of these definitions, is much closer to what I want. It's not going back to what was, but becoming healthy and regaining possession of something lost or stolen, like my sanity (peace, love and a sound mind), like my freedom (Romans 6:17-18), and my relationship with Daddy, which was stolen from me before I was even born. Our normal, how it should have been according to the design, is for us to have health physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually in the midst of amazing and fulfilling relationship with our Creator. That we didn't have, and didn't have it for so long that even as we searched everywhere and tried everything to fit the hole, we didn't even recognize what was missing. We were like people born blind, who didn't know that being able to see is actually the normal until we were healed and could see. Recovery, a regaining of health and freedom and relationship, not a regaining of what was before addiction but of what was always supposed to be in the first place, what we were looking for.
And that is precisely why restoration actually is the right word too. Returning us to our former owner (Creator, Master, Daddy, God), because while we were separated at birth, we were always meant to have relationship with God and life is not ever all it can or should be without it. Returning us to that former place before the fall and the death that resulted from sin. No, not Eden, but relationship with our Creator. Returning us to the condition of being clean before our Lord, free from sin and death, and a reflection of His love and glory. It is not a return to or a regaining of what we knew before. That was the hell that drove us to our destruction anyway, the hell of separation from Daddy. We don't get the old life back. Jesus made that clear when He said He makes us new. The old is passed away and we are new creations in Christ. So how is that recovery and restoration if we become something different? Like the person born blind being made able to see is given a new reality and life and nothing will ever be the same again, we recover and find restoration to what we were always meant to be, reformed to the original, healthy and beautiful design. We become something totally different from what we were but what we always wanted to be and couldn't describe.
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