474. Celebrating God's Grace, I Will Restore the Years the Locusts Have Eaten

Many things can be restored. Some of us can relate to restoring furniture or homes we have lived in. Even relationships can be restored. God's Word holds many promises that were not just for those in biblical times. His promises are for us today! God promises in Joel 2:25 that He will restore the years the locust has eaten. So be of good cheer! God can restore even lost time we feel we may have had in this lifetime, years possibly not living our best or years without Him. God is the ultimate restorer – of all things – even time!   ****   Welcome to Celebrating God's Grace, a Women World Leader's Podcast. We are grateful you are here and it's such a privilege to come together and delve into God's Word and teachings and I pray today's message will touch your heart and mind. Our prayer is that as your intimacy with God grows, your love for one another will flourish, enabling you to live our a courageous, purpose-driven life! Don't forget to join us each Monday where our founder & Co-CEO, Kimberly Hobbs, interviews women from all over the world – women of God who have a story to share – and how God has shown up in their life. And Wednesdays, where our Co-CEO and Bible Teacher, Julie Jenkins, brings us a study of God's Word and its application to our lives.  Today, let's look at a verse in the book of Joel. A promise. There are many promises in the Bible – thousands of them. And they are for us, not just those who lived long ago. Joel 2:25 – I will restore to you the years that the swarming locusts has eaten. God promises to restore the years the locusts have eaten. This is an amazing promise. For, some things can be restored. We may lose property – it can be restored. Even relationships can be restored. Money, jobs can be restored. We may think of furniture or a house being restored.  But TIME. Time cannot be. Haven't we all possibly thought, "Oh, if I could only go back in time". But these days are forever gone. Here God is promising the IMPOSSIBLE. To give us a glimpse of the context of this verse. God's people had experienced the complete destruction of their harvest. An invasion of locusts, marched through their crops, field by field. The entire country of Israel was affected. God's people in the Promised Land had been brought to their knees. How many of us have been where we have been brought to our knees? Devastated. Worry. Battles of life we face. Heartache. Sorrow. But there is always HOPE in the LORD.   What are our locust years? Locust years, wasted years, lost years. Years we can't get back and it causes us grief. Comes in lots of variety, different forms. Here are some to reflect upon.   Fruitless years – Farmers had planted seeds, laboured week after week only to see no fruit. Some of us may relate to this. "All this work I've done! What did I get out of it? Absolutely nothing. It could be a failed venture, a failed marriage, a child that has left home and is living an unhealthy lifestyle. All our efforts leading to disappointment.   Loss of love – it could be losing the love of our life. Or it could be never finding that soul mate that our heart yearns for. Years lost where love of another does not fill our days and years. It could be where family moves away and we are separated from our children or grandchildren and do not get to experience the love of seeing them regularly and being part of their lives – only to depend on technology to "see" their faces.   Loss of ourselves – we sometimes feel we give so much to our families, our children, our career, our missions. We may feel we loss a part of ourselves. We may even face in this lifetime health challenges, an illness, or a major life challenges that has us reflecting on loss.   Selfish years – Some have committed to God but living for self. Some could say what has become of all these years without real spiritual awakening, without the Holy Spirit filled life!    Lukewarm years – Some of us were on fire for God and have become luke warm, Distractions come, many of them are good distractions, but take us away from our time and study of the Word and our first true love. Misdirected years – Choices that led to dead ends. We might have had our lives mapped out.. dreams & goals to accomplish… But life didn't turn out quite the way we imagined. Empty years. This can happen at any age.   Oh, how the locusts can slip into our fields and eat away at the years of our lives! And what about the rebellious years, the parodical son or daughter. Growing up with many blessings yet our instinct was to rebel. Throwing yourself into a life of pleasure but it only brought pain. We thought we knew best at the time. Regret, eventually realising these years were lost searching for things we believed would bring us happiness only to now know the years were spent chasing things that only brought temporary happiness (or what we thought was happiness). If we have the blessing of living a long life we may reflect on our own locust years. All Christ-less years are LOCUST YEARS. All years we are not surrendered and seeking Him with all our hearts are locusts years! We all have them. But praise God! We meet, get to know and serve a God who can bless the years. We look forward, not behind, and live the hope that is our anchor, Jesus Christ. Complete restoration doesn't just happen. We must take personal responsibility to enforce this prophesy. Christ can restore lost years by deepening your fellowship with Him. Gear up for it! Be expectant! Sow your seeds – His harvest awaits. Here for the time and years we have left and beyond with heaven awaiting. So let us keep our eyes and mind and heart upon You Lord, the restorer. He completely restores – no matter what we've done or been through.  He desires to give us double for our trouble!  Is it old attitudes and mindsets? Unhealthy relationships? Ask Him and He will tell You. Restoration awaits!! Will you receive it?  I pray you ask Him to. Fill our hearts with a love for You stronger, brighter than it could ever be starting today with all of the years you bless us with to be here. Multiply our fruitfulness and no matter what comes against us in the earthly years let us bear fruit that will last! Spurgeon said, "God can do more in a year or a day than all of us can do in a lifetime". Amen,