OUR GOD RESCUES AND RESTORES
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I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten. – Joel 2:25 –
Our God is the great Restorer. He will not only restore time lost or wasted… He will replace lost opportunities, relationships, plans, hopes and dreams. Perhaps not in the way we expect or hope… and maybe not in our timing. Yet the heart of the Father is for us, not in opposition to us. He desires to rescue and bless us.
We may look back upon our lives and see years lost in fruitless pursuits, selfish ambitions, dead-end wanderings or willful rebellion. Years spent without Christ… or not living as closely to Him as we would have liked. The years when we were not walking with our Lord made us vulnerable to the “locusts”.
All the best that God had laid out for us was sidetracked as we followed our own paths. We experienced the consequences of our choices. Yet our Lord wants to make up for the lost years we squandered along the way on our spiritual journey. He longs to make our lives fruitful for His kingdom.
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness. – John 12:46
Perhaps we believe we are walking closely with our Savior… choosing His ways over our ways. Yet upon closer evaluation, we may see we have wandered off His path in certain areas of our lives. We have not given Him complete access for His light to shine.
If we are to be a reflection of Christ, we need to allow His light to permeate every area of our lives… every nook and cranny… every dark and dusty corner. These areas, when not surrendered to Him, are where the locusts sneak in through a crack in the door, a window ajar, a tear in the screen… the subtle inroads of the enemy.
We may be unaware of their presence… devouring all our hopes, dreams and aspirations… until it is too late. An opportunity has passed… a relationship has soured… a span of time has been lost. A plan that seemed so right… a dream that appeared so possible… a hope that looked to be for our best.
Our Lord longs to rescue us. When we repent and return to Him, He will come in, sweep out the dust and cobwebs and clean the windows to let His light shine in. Through Christ, all our past sins and their eternal consequences are washed away. Ultimately, He will fill all areas of our lives with His holy presence and abundant blessings.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. – Ephesians 5:8
Why do the locusts devour all that seems dear to us? Why would God allow this? Remember… God has given us, His treasured creations, free choice. We can choose to obey or disobey… to follow or wander… to yield or resist. This is out of His deepest love for us, so we can freely choose to love and follow Him.
Our God will recover what has been lost to the locusts. Yet He will discern the exact timing of His blessings. He may be waiting on us. When we give up our wanderings and return to Him… when we learn all He desires for us to learn… when we move back into His will… when we come to value His love and abundance in our lives, He will step in and restore.
To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. – Ephesians 3:20
Our God is the God of the impossible. His promise is to bless us beyond what we could hope for or imagine as we abide in Him. He is trustworthy and will follow through with His promises. When we come to truly believe this, we can place our absolute faith in Him.
Our God is good, and He can only act in ways that are good. When we allow this truth to sink deep into our hearts and spirits, we come to realize that our lives will turn out for good if we yield our all to Him.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. – Isaiah 46:4
Our Lord sees our grief and regret. He hears our prayers of repentance. And He will restore… in His way and in His time. He may not give back all the years lost… yet He may bless us in new ways, making the years now surrendered to Him more fruitful. He may not recover lost relationships… yet He may bring new ones into our lives. He may not give us a second chance at lost opportunities… yet He may open new doors of opportunity for us. He may not fulfill our lost dreams… yet He may place new dreams in our hearts.
Are you seeing God’s divine pattern here? He is our Restorer… restoring with new, better and abundant blessings. He is the One who sustains us, rescues us and repays us for all that the locusts have eaten. He sees our sorrow at what could have been and the change in our hearts. He is ready and willing to open heaven’s floodgates for us. We can only open our hands and accept all His blessings with love and thankfulness.
† Eternal Takeaway – God is ever ready to forgive and restore when we return to Him †
