Welcome back to our 40 day journey to Easter.
Day 19
Have you ever found yourself dealing with great sorrow or difficulty, through no fault of your own?
Due to circumstances beyond your control you may lose your home, your health suffers, or you are
inundated with bills. Or worse yet, you are surrounded by people but feel alone, disregarded, ignored and
invisible to everyone around you.
These things can often be attributed to an attack of the enemy. Satan doesn't want you to have an abundant life - He wants you to feel swamped by sorrow, depression, hurt and pain.
Times like this are when you have to remind yourself of the promises of your God!
Our Scripture reading for today is Joel 2: 25 ...
I will repay you for the years
that the swarming locust ate,
the young locust, the destroying locust,
and the devouring locust—
My great army that I sent against you.
Usually when we see locusts in the Bible, they're destroying something. They can fly in swarms large enough that they can block out the light of the sun! The swarms are carried about by the wind and will descend on the land and destroy every living plant, including crops, trees, and grass.
God even used locusts as one of His punishments against the Egyptians for refusing to let His people go.
The way that a field of wheat looks after a swarm of locusts has descended on it, is much the way that our lives can feel when we've been through times of challenge, trial or loss.
In today's Scripture passage, we read that God told the prophet Joel that He was going to redeem what was taken from His people. He promises that when His people return to Him, He will give back to them more than they lost. To return to the Lord would mean that the people stopped serving idols and neglecting to give Him the honour due to Him. When they repented of their sins, the living God promised to restore, redeem, and replenish them.
In the same way God promises to refresh and restore us to Him, if we will only confess our sins, and return to Him in repentance.
I pray that as your read today's Bible verse, you will be encouraged to have faith in God and believe that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (see Hebrews 11: 6). And I pray that you will not grow weary in doing good works for the Father's glory, knowing that in due time you will reap a reward (see Galatians 6: 9).