Have you heard of people picking a word or intention for the year instead of a resolution? I’ve never liked resolutions and I LOVE words, so this was an easy yes for me. Regeneration is one of the words I’ve chosen to focus on during 2020 and it means regrowing a part of your body that was lost or regenerating it. Humans can grow parts of their liver and skin back. Lizards can famously regenerate a tail. Salamanders can regenerate brain tissue, eye tissue, spinal cord, heart tissue and the occasional limb.
While most of us aren’t regenerating a physical part of us this year, I wonder if, on a soul level, there are parts of us that are wounded by living in a dark world. Maybe your belief that things will work out is gone. Or your confidence that God is trustworthy. A lot of us struggle to believe we are wonderful at this very moment and deserve to be seen and loved. We were born to know these things at the very depths of us, but sin is out to destroy. It wages war on these beliefs until all we’re left with is a weak wish that they were true.
What’s happened with you? Is there a big hole in your faith? Was your optimism obliterated by life experiences or ground down to nubs?
My faith took a lot of hits early in life and I see the devastation when I struggle to believe God has good feelings toward me, that good is indeed stronger than bad and my life will make a difference. It feels sometimes like my ability to trust has been lopped off, along with a lot of other things.
But I’m here to tell you, they are all regenerating.
The God who created me is recreating me. Nothing I’ve lost is lost forever. The whole me, the one who trusts Jesus with EVERYTHING is coming back to life.
Regenerate us, Jesus. We want to be whole again.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him…
Luke 17:15,16 NIV
