Joel 2:25 “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed." NIV
never again will my people be shamed." NIV
Joel 2:25 "So 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. 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 be put to shame."
The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, 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 be put to shame."
I know in my own life that when I looked back a couple years ago, right after the Lord finished a season of healing in my life - I felt a sense of loss for all the years that had been 'wasted'. The years that had been 'wasted' on my own sin, the years that had been 'wasted' on dealing with the effects of others sin against me. The years 'wasted' mentally - because I couldn't remember much of the past 15 or so years that I've been on this healing journey - and even less before that. Spiritually 'wasted' because I could have been doing so much for God IF this didn't happen or that didn't happen. Emotionally 'wasted' because of all the energy and time it takes to process the wrongs we've done and the wrongs done by others. Physically 'wasted' because time goes on. Whether we're in the 'right' frame of mind or not, we do keep getting older.
Sometimes, in this case, we do feel a loss and it's real. We HAVE lost time. We may feel a loss - a grief that tells us that we'll never get those years back. That we've wasted 'X' number of years ourselves; dealing with our issues, not dealing with our issues, trying to cover up our issues - and not doing so great a job at that - they always seemed to come back....
BUT, what IF those years really WEREN'T wasted? What IF those years were some sort of 'training ground'. I'm not saying the Father put us there, because He doesn't do that. People put us 'there' - WE put us 'there' - the demonic puts us 'there' and sometimes, circumstances beyond our control put us 'there'.
But what IF those years, could be redeemed? Did you just feel a twinge of hope inside? Y'know, it's happened before.
Look at the life of Moses... he started out his life being abandoned float down a river to who knows where. He was picked up by the Egyptians... and just any Egyptians but Pharoah's household. Later, He even killed someone. But look how God used him to bring about a mighty literal deliverance of the people of God.
Look at the life of Joseph, his brothers threw him in a well and sold him into slavery. He spent many years in Egypt, slowing rising from slavery to being very important to Pharoah. God used him to save people from famine and restore his family.
Look at the life of Paul. He spent years and years studying the laws and went around persecuting- even killing Christians. Jesus met him when he least expected it and totally transformed his life. He went around preaching the gospel of Jesus to everyone that the Lord sent him to.
1 Corinthians 1:27 "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty..."
Go ahead, look up some of the 'great' Bible characters... see where they were before God started to use them. If the years that the locusts had eaten in their lives could be redeemed and redeemed in Power and Authority, then ours can be also!
Let us today, take back what is rightfully ours. We have an inheritance in Christ. We are co-heirs with Him. Everything the Father has is ours. Will we take hold of it? Can we take our eyes off of the 'lost' past and put our eyes on what the Lord has for us now? Knowing that what we have been through He so totally can use for His glory in someone else's life, if we let Him? Or will we continue to mourn the loss of those years and stay bound up in grief.
Let's shed those 'wasted' year graveclothes and put on the righteousness of God in Jesus; shedding the shame and grief and embracing the here and now.
Sharon Daugherty
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