Savior

I was struggling with the idea that so much of what I had given my life to over that last 15 years of ministry was somehow useless, wasted, or just plain gone. I was very aware that any accomplishments were God's doing and he had mercifully minimized my failures, but I was discouraged with feeling lost. I knew that God had been faithful to me in the past, but I was having trouble remembering. As I was praying, I heard this phrase in my mind: "I'm your Savior, Restorer, Rebuilder and Rewarder." It occurred to me that my use of the word "Savior" had lost its meaning in my life. As a pastor's son raised on the front row, I had relegated the term to a title instead of an action. I began to embrace the idea that God "saves" us over and over again, not just from something, but for something.

He takes our brokenness, mistakes and failures and in the restoration process makes us better than we were. He takes what we've been through and reworks it for our benefit! Nothing is wasted. In this way He "saves" everything for his own use. When we surrender to him, He is saving what has been lost, restoring what has been broken, rebuilding what's been torn down and rewarding us for seeking after him in the valley of our difficulty. Position is nothing, direction is everything with God! He never punishes us for where we are, only for refusing to go where He is leading. He is a Savior, and He wants to save us for His great glory and purpose.

I remember the day the words to the pre-chorus came to me, which serve to emphasize the bigger idea of this song: "You rescued me from all my fears and loosed the chains of wasted years." With Christ, our future is not the sum total of our past. Because of Christ, the chains of our mistakes or failures don't have to keep us bound. He is our Savior! - Ross Parsley