Joel 2:25 says,
“I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
The crawling locust,
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,
My great army which I sent among you.”
So at first glance, the detail in this verse seems random. But upon further studying, I realized that the reason that these four types of locusts are listed are because when all four are released on a plant, they would completely eat it way. Leaves, stem, flowers; all of it. What one leaves, the other eats and so on. Okay, so, now realize how incredibly cool this verse is. God says He is going to restore the years that have been completely eaten away. The years that have been totally wasted and don't even have meaning anymore. He will restore them! To restore is to bring back, return, repair. It doesn't matter how these years were destroyed; whether they were wasted or stolen. He will restore them.
So in this process of healing that God has me in right now, this promise has brought me a tremendous amount of comfort. I don't know about you but even though I'm only 20, there are a lot of years that I have wasted. Many years have been eaten away by sin and carelessness. When I first rededicated my life to Christ, it was hard to not be discouraged because I was focused on my past and what I've done, thinking that there is no way that God could actually make something out of my life. It seemed to me like there was nothing left. That's what sin does; it destroys. But God restores. He has shown me that He is restoring the years that I have wasted. Even more, He is redeeming the past. He is going to use what I have ruined to show His strength and saving power. This is such a beautiful truth. I can already see how He is doing this in my life and I can't express how blessed I am to be saved and loved by this amazing God. The God who is the Redeemer and Restorer.
As my application this week, I am going to draw a picture of what this verse means to me and hang it on my wall.
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