4 Signs God Will Restore What You Lost

Have you ever had not just a bad day, but a bad year or season? How about two years? 2020 and 2021 were some of the most challenging years of my life. I had two surgeries in 2020, and in 2021, I suffered an excruciating neck injury that left me in bed for months, so I couldn’t do anything about our failing business, and ministry finances left me with a $5000 loss at the end of it all. On top of that, I was undergoing the most severe spiritual attack I’d ever experienced. I felt like I was losing my life, my mind, my time, and important seasons in my relationships that I didn’t think I could get back. And then it was over, and I felt a shift, and I watched God faithfully restore all that was lost. When we go through challenges, it’s easy to forget that this too shall pass, so if you need hope that our God is still a healer, provider, and restorer, this video is for you. Enjoy!

What if God was trying to restore what you once lost? Would you recognize it or would fear of repeating the past blind you from seeing God moving in your life? In today's video, I’m sharing 3 sure signs God is about to do a new thing and prove Himself the restorer of your life and soul. 

I was battling a lot of physical challenges and under extreme spiritual warfare from 2020 to 2021. Then 2022 rolled around and I could sense a shift. At the beginning of the year, my pastor gave a sermon called “Double Blessing,” and it really resonated with me because I could feel that things were starting to turn around and look up again. That’s exactly what happened. Due to all the health challenges I faced, I could not work as usual, and in 2021, we ended the year with a $5,000 loss in business and ministry.  What really hurt me was the time I felt like I had lost with my family. I was so excited to see my Dad in Texas after not seeing him throughout the pandemic, but we had to cancel that trip. All the plans I had to spend with my children that summer were canceled, and that hurt the most. But God is a restorer. In 2022, God restored our finances, and we had one of our best years ever as a ministry. We got to see my Dad numerous times, and we even took a last-minute trip to the beach for a week, as a family where I spent entire days out by the ocean with my kids, and we created memories we’ll have for a lifetime. When someone would ask me how I was doing, I’d say “God is restoring everything that was lost.” 

As many of you know, no matter how bad things get, this too shall pass. Every period in life, every phase, is just a season, and we should approach it and view it accordingly. So that season of struggle, battle, and pain I went through was just that, it was only a season and so is yours. That means there will be a transition, a turning point, a shift where things will start to look up again. God will turn things around. If we are careful to pay attention, we’ll see God moving, but if we don’t, we risk staying stuck when we don’t need to.

In today's video, we’ll learn:

• ⚒️ Why we can trust God to restore what was lost.
• ↩️ Why we often miss God when He is trying to turn things around for us.
• ✨ 4 signs God is restoring our lives, stories, and souls.

But first, let’s discuss what it means for God to restore. The word restore means to bring back to existence or use. It means to renew. The prefix “re” means again and again. It represents repetition. This means whatever God gave us or did for us before, He can do it again. He can restore what was lost, damaged, or neglected. 

We see one of His most notable acts of restoration in the life of Job. The losses of Job’s children, wealth, and health are all recorded within the first few chapters of the book of Job. Much of the book documents him navigating loss, disappointment, and despair. But at the end of the final chapter of Job, we learn of his restoration: Job 42:12 says:

As I’ve reflected on Job’s story, I realized God did not bring back what Job lost, but He did bless the life Job had left. We can often miss God restoring what was lost, because we think things will never be the same and draw the conclusion they will never be good again. But God’s restoration doesn’t mean your life will look exactly the same, it means He can still use what’s left to make something good, and maybe even better. 

Why We Don’t See God Restoring

If we’re not careful, this may be why we can sometimes miss God restoring our lives. We can allow our fear of the past repeating itself to discourage us from moving forward in faith to take hold of what God has for us. I think of Peter who betrayed Jesus before Jesus was crucified. Discouraged Peter went back to fishing, until Jesus met him by the lake where he was fishing and restored the call Peter thought he lost. I imagine Peter was afraid he’d mess up again, fearful he couldn’t be trusted as he once was. Instead, Jesus gives Peter another chance and Peter takes it. Peter moves forward to become the rock Jesus would build His church on as Jesus said he would despide Peter’s past mistakes (​​Matthew 16:18).

If God is giving us a second chance, we don’t need to fear history repeating itself. God has strengthened you to carry this restored life better than before. So don’t count yourself out because God surely hasn’t. How do we know that? Here are 4 signs God is restoring what was lost: 

4 Signs God is Restoring What Was Lost

1. God is leading you to forgive 

Many people look to the life of Job to encourage them of God‘s restored power. One part of his story that we often overlook is found in Job 42:10 thats reads:

When Job was struggling, his friends were of no help. They accused Job of sinning and causing his own misfortune. But God calls Job to pray for and release his friends before his life is restored.  

Unforgiveness keeps us stuck in the past, so if we feel God showing us any offense in our hearts that we need to let go up and release, it can very well be because He’s about to restore something that was lost in our past. He’s trying to open a new door or do something new in our life and He knows that we can’t move forward and walk into that calling if we have unforgiveness in our hearts. So God is revealing that you need to forgive because He doesn’t want unforgiveness holding you back; He wants you to be free to receive what He’s about to restore in your life.

2. God is asking you to do something again.

As I stated earlier, the prefix “re” means again, and again. It means repetition. So another sign that God is about to restore your life is that He’s asking you to do something again. 

I have a friend who had a string of toxic relationships and took some time away from dating to heal, and she thought that she may never be in a relationship again after that, and was disheartened. But God introduced another young man into her life and she became fearful because she thought what happened in the past might happen again. She was hesitant to date again even though she felt like God was leading her to spend time with and get to know this new young gentleman. As she did, and was telling me about him, and I was praying for her, the Lord put this word on my heart to share with her, and I’ll share with you today: This is not that. Sometimes, God is telling you to do something again. To run it back. To try it one more time. But because we’ve been so wounded in the past, we think the past will repeat itself, and we hesitate, and we stop, and we freeze, and we don’t try one more time. Sometimes God tells us to go again, because He’s trying to restore what was lost. He’s trying to give us what was taken before. Now this takes courage, and it takes ensuring that we really are hearing from God, but once we know it’s God speaking to us, it’s time to go again because He’s trying to do something new and restore something lost.

3. You’re uncomfortable 

Often, this will make us uncomfortable, which is the next sign that God may be trying to restore our lives and our souls. Restoration is beautiful, but it’s not always easy and it’s not always comfortable. God restored Job’s life after all of that loss, but that restoration wasn’t just God waving a magic wand over Job’s life and things just magically appearing. No, Job had to get out there and actively participate in God restoring his life. He had to get up from his bed and live again. He had to have sex with his wife to have more kids. He had to go out to his land to take care of it, and take care of all the animals that he had. He had to get back to the art of living in order for God to restore his life. That's not always easy and it doesn’t always feel good because when you’ve been laying on your bed so long, you start to get stiff, you start to get weary and tired, and sometimes it just feels easier to just stay right where you are. But if we do, we may miss what God is trying to restore. 

4. You’re getting your joy back.

The final sign that God is trying to restore your life is that you got your joy back. Restoration is very much an inside job. When we think about restoration, we often think about what we lost physically, even what we lost relationally, but it’s very much God, giving us our joy back. Giving us our spark for life back. Igniting our passion to live again. Much of what we’ve lost as we navigate this fallen world is our joy, peace, and hope. But no matter what life looks like, our light for life can always be restored in Christ. It’s then we can confidently proclaim the words of Psalm 30:11 that says:

If you sense God restoring what was once lost, and you’re ready to get your joy back, watch this video where I share 5 biblical habits of a joy filled life. 

For more encouragement, download my free Bible Study called “Worry-Free” to learn the 3 lies feeding your worry and the truth to set you free at belovedwomen.org. Thanks for watching and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and beloved.