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 He will… 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 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. 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.
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 a certain area 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.
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 seemed so possible… a hope that seemed to be for our best.
Yet our Lord longs to rescue us. When we ask Him, He will come in, sweep out the dust and cobwebs, wash the windows to let His Light shine in… and ultimately 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 are free to obey or disobey… free to follow or wander… free 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. 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.
Our Lord sees our grief and regret. He hears our prayers of repentance. And He will restore… in His way and in His timing. 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 restore a lost relationship… yet He may bring a new one into our lives. He may not give us a second chance at a lost opportunity… yet He may open a new door of opportunity for us. He may not fulfill our lost dreams… yet He may place new dreams in our hearts.
Are we seeing a pattern here? God 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 understands our sorrow at what could have been. He sees the change in our hearts. He is ready and willing to open heaven’s floodgates for us. We can only open our hand and accept all His blessings with love and thankfulness.
