Good morning friends! If you’re reading along in the scriptures with these daily devotionals, you may find Joel 2 to be a bleak prophesy, and initially a somewhat difficult passage to apply in our 21st century lives.
What was most certainly a true devastation by locusts, combined with a severe drought that resulted in a widespread famine can – and does – have application today.
When I was 31, my first marriage of almost 10 years ended abruptly. Without going needlessly into detail, I can tell you that the end of that marriage left me feeling as though my past several years had been spent in drought and famine. After more than a decade in a relationship and nearly a decade in marriage, I was left alone, childless, unloved and unhappy and very lonely. I could not fathom how or why I was in that situation. I remember wondering in the midst of it how I was ever to have the life I thought I was meant to – how would I have a long marriage with children when I was starting over in my thirties and no one was in my life?
Joel 2:25-26 says this of God’s promise to us, “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.”
Time itself isn’t restored to us – but what is lost from the years can be. God can bless his people with bountiful crops to replace what was lost in drought or plague, and can multiply blessings on us – after going hungry not only are we able to have enough to eat but to eat in plenty and be satisfied.
A little more than a year after my divorce I married my husband. He had two amazing and beautiful children already who instantly became my family, and God blessed us with our son Samuel and then Andrew right away. God most certainly restored to me the years the locust had eaten. In more abundance than I ever could have imagined or designed for myself.
Have you experienced this in your life? Are you in a time of desolation or famine, or are you experiencing the restoration God promised through Joel’s prophesy?
Regardless – remember this: “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.”
Don’t forget to praise God for his mercy and blessings. Take time to recognize where, how and when God has restored you.