Testimony from an inmate of how God is the Master Restorer
“I believe God is using this time to restore me, to who I was before addiction. That’s not something that happens overnight. It takes time and effort. Take this for example… When you restore an old car, what do you do first? You take it off the streets for a while so you can work on it. Then you take everything out of it, the seats, the glass, the rug, etc.… “EVERYTHING”. Then you would sandblast the car to remove all the ugly spots. Next, you would paint it. After you did all this, you would put it back together. Not with all the old dirty filthy parts, but with brand new parts that are new and not faulty.
See God is using this bad time in my life right now and turning it into something good. God is able to make a bad situation good. He has taken me out of commission and sat me down a minute. He couldn’t get through to me while I was doing my own thing…and chasing all the wrong things. I had put myself in Satan’s hands, the hands that like to kill, steal, and destroy. I was headed straight to the crusher, doomed and couldn’t even see it coming. I was blind. I thank God for loving me enough to catch me
before I got there. He allowed me to see things clearly for the first time in my life. Just because I was in prison my life was not over. In fact, it had just begun. You see, God had a plan for me. He was going to take this time as the Master Restorer. Who is more than capable of making things beautiful again? Since I have been locked up, I have been stripped of all choices and decisions that I had been able to make when I was a free woman. Now I am told when I can eat, sleep, and shower. I have lost all control, I am powerless. That’s exactly where God wanted me to be. Right here where I am at now in prison. He is able to start the process of restoration now!
He has taken the old me to the cross with Him. Every bad or evil thing I have done is forgiven. Gone…not there anymore, all that guilt and shame gone. You can’t have a car in mint condition if you leave any of the old dirty parts there. You see he is cleaning me from the inside out. Just like Jesus said to the Pharisees…you have made the outside look clean, but you have failed to clean the inside. So not it’s time to make the outside presentable. I believe God paints us with the fruits of the spirit. So, when others see us, they see Jesus. How beautiful He is. I know He is still working a few kinks out of me. Because once He starts something He always finishes it. I am now looking forward to His finishing touches. I look at it this way…He kept me from the junkyard and took me straight to the showroom floor. I will have been in the Master Restorer’s hands.” – Patricia R. in SC.
Since 1955, Prison Mission Association (PMA) has focused on “Reaching Prisoners for Christ” by providing Free Life-changing Bible correspondence courses to inmates in all 50 states and overseas, with the goal of planting churches behind bars.