17th May, 2019
RESTITUTION
David Abankwah
READ: Numbers 5:5-10
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I RESTORE him fourfold.
-Luke 19:8 | KJV
Restitution is the act of returning something that was lost or stolen to its owner. It also means payment that is made to someone for damage and trouble caused. It also means the act of restoration in terms of making good of or giving an equivalent for some injury you have caused spiritually, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, materially and physically. I first heard this word in church when I went for a youth meeting. Please, treat church meetings as a flight to heaven you can never miss. You will never know one thing you are lacking or you have to do to make it to New Jerusalem.
It was not even the sermon preached but something that came up when we were about to close. As the master of ceremony pounded on it, I searched through myself and found that indeed, there were some things that I had to return because I stole them and there were things that people gave me to use for a while but I had taken them along with me as if they were mine. I knew that, I had not repented. Though I was a believer, I was a blunted liar to call myself a Christian. Brethren, never think you are a Christian and never say it anywhere that you are, if you know very well that you are not. Search around you, don’t you possess stolen goods?
Don’t you have things that you need to return to the rightful owner? Zacchaeus knew very well that, he had to practise restitution if he had genuinely repented. The reason why Jesus Christ came to his house was for this purpose. His salvation would have never come if he had never done that. See what Jesus Christ told him, ‘This day is salvation come to this house….-Luke 19:9. Salvation minus restitution, is equal to impenitence. I know you have faith in Jesus Christ and all that, but faith without works is dead. There is a work of restitution you must do to be complete in the grace because, restitution is a proof of true repentance.
We have two main types of restitution: Material restitution and verbal restitution (confession). For material restitution, if you have stolen something or you have something that belongs to someone and you are returning it, restore it this way: Divide the value or amount of the thing by five and add one part of it to the stolen thing as a damage and give it in addition to the stolen or possessed good. For verbal restitution which is confession for a sin done against someone WITH or WITHOUT the person’s knowledge (such as witchcraft, deceiving spirits, and all that), boldly confess your sins to the victim and settle matters amicably.
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David Abankwah 