He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation21:5 NIV

We have a worktable at the back of our family room. It is cleaned off only a couple of times a year, layered with a tablecloth and candles and china when we have family over for dinner that numbers beyond 12. Otherwise, that table is always filled with tools and the remnants or beginnings of projects. 

Pictures are framed, guitars are rewired, cushions are recovered, presents are wrapped, props for film are created. There are toolboxes and crates and drawers filled with paint and glue, hammers and screwdrivers, and stapleguns. A sewing machine is close by on a shelf. This is part of our everyday life; repairing what is broken; taking what was old or discarded and making it new.

Sometimes it frustrates me – this constant affection that my husband and I both seem to share – always seeing a new possibility in almost everything. "Look at this wood," he will say to me. "It's mahogany." I know he is mentally taking stock of every room to see if it can find a new home in our house. But of course, it will need to be cut and reproportioned, cushions sewn from antique rugs, and probably painted before the day is done.

Lately, I am seeing this same sort of transformation when God gets His hands on us. He has always told us these stories; clay in the potter's hands, silver going through the fire, the vine pruned by the gardener. 

Here it is again this morning as I spend a few moments with Glyn Evans; “God calls His disciples into existence in order to reverse the natural order of things.” He shares the story of the young King Hezekiah who reversed the spiritual state of his nation. What was discarded and decaying, he made new. He opened the doors to God’s Temple and repaired them. It is worth reading the whole story – but here is the beginning;

“In the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them. He summoned the priests and Levites to meet him at the courtyard east of the Temple. He said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Purify yourselves, and purify the Temple of the Lord, the God of your ancestors. Remove all the defiled things from the sanctuary.” 2 Chronicles 29:3-5

King Hezekiah was acutely, painfully aware of something I think many of us are oblivious of; we have been unfaithful, turning our faces to our own little gods and away from the Lord God. We have shut the doors and put out the lamps and withheld our offerings. There is a consequence.

God is bringing a time of revival upon us. It is an opportunity to be made new. Do we have the ears to hear and the eyes to see? Are we on our face before His throne? Are we crying out His name and mourning for our brokenness? Can we set aside our arrogance and accept His offer to redeem us; His ability alone to make us new? These are the questions I ask Him each morning on my knees.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Lord, form us as pliable clay. Lord, refine us like silver. Lord, prune our unruly branches to produce fruit in Your kind.

Hezekiah was only 25 years old when he ascended to the throne of his father. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He opened the doors, he repaired what was broken. This is our job, our purpose if we follow God; to open what was shut, to repair what was broken, to light the lamps in the darkness.

Our God’s purpose is to make things new. To make us new. To take up what was neglected, discarded, broken, decaying. To take us apart and put us back together in a way that looks more like Him: a new self, purified, created in holiness, reborn in His image. We are to light the lamps which shine into the darkness.

Lord God, reveal what is broken. Fill us with Your truth and Your righteousness. May we have the courage and strength to do what is right in Your eyes. Cleanse us, remake us, and bring us close to You. Bring us through this fire. Open our eyes. Amen.

Through Smoke NeedToBreathe

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