Monthly Archives: October 2019

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. (Joel 2:25)

There is tremendous encouragement to be found in the lesson of the locusts. God will accomplish His purposes in the lives of His people by any means necessary . . . and along the way, He alone can bring restoration and reversal to all that was lost.

The crops that the swarming locusts had eaten were utterly lost, and they paint a proverbial picture of all the losses that God’s people face. When the children of Israel were released from bondage in Egypt, they were but a few days’ journey away from the Promised Land. But because of their rebellion, they lost 38 years and an entire generation while wandering in the desert. The prodigal son, who rebelled against his father and ran off to the far country, lost his time, his talent, and his treasure by choosing to live a life of rebellion.

There are many armies that the Almighty commands, and He uses them to correct us when we willfully wander away from Him. But never forget that, whatever form the Almighty’s army may take, it is never sent to crush us, but always to correct us in love. And in the Almighty’s cosmic correction, we find a word of unimaginable comfort: “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”

Our great God can reverse the seemingly irreversible and give us great gain in spite of our loss. Jesus is in the business of reversing the seemingly irreversible; as He said, “With man this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

• He reversed the lost years of Abraham and Sarah without children
• He reversed the lost years of Moses on the back side of the desert
• He reversed the lost years of the Samaritan woman at the well
• He reversed the lost years of Zacchaeus the despised tax collector
• He reversed the lost years of Saul of Tarsus
• He reversed the lost years of the paralyzed man at the pool Bethesda

So the question is this: What lost years is our Lord ready to reverse in your life today? The lesson of the locusts should lift our spirits above all that has been lost in our lives, knowing that Jesus is ready, willing, and able to turn every loss into our great gain.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. (Isaiah 65:19)

Let these words from our Lord comfort you in your every affliction, because the day is coming when the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more forever. A pastor lives in a world marked by weeping and crying, going from one storm to another with the saints God has entrusted to his care. But the day is coming when every storm shall be stilled. That, beloved, is the promise that is designed to propel us forward through every dark night of the soul.

The promise is as profound as it is personal. A day is coming in the not-so-distant future when we will be carried on the wings of eagles into the presence of our Lord . . . or we will watch in awe when He returns to earth on the clouds of heaven. Either way, we will have received the fulfillment of God’s promise of perfection, and there will be nothing to hinder our joy and fulfillment. We will be with our Lord and we will weep no more, because every desire of the heart will be eternally filled. There will be no more sorrow . . . no more suffering . . . no more storm winds blowing our way. Mourning will be exchanged for rejoicing that will go on forevermore.

Perhaps you find yourself today in the midst of sorrow because of some loss in your life—the loss of a job, the loss of a relationship, the loss of your health, the loss of an opportunity, the loss of a loved one. This is the reality of living in a broken world as broken people. But the time is coming when all that is broken will be made whole. Every tear will be wiped away and every wound healed.

Look to that promise, Christian, and let it strengthen you every step of the way toward the paradise that awaits you. Eye has not seen and ear has not heard the infinite joys that await the saints of God who will one day glory in the eternal presence of Jesus Christ.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

The Lord examines the righteous. (Psalm 11:5)

The Lord examines us—not because He wants to hurt us, but because He loves us. We are precious in His sight, so He will refine us in His fires of affliction so that we come out more pure than when we went in. This is true for all God’s children; none escape His examination.

It is out of a heart of eternal love that our God tries and tests us. There is no other way to experience the removal of the self than through the examinations of the Savior. If Jesus did not love us, He would not examine us; and if we knew just how much He loves us, we would echo David’s cry for His continual examinations:

Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. (Psalm 26:2)

Remember, our Lord does not take us through His examinations so He can gain a deeper understanding of our commitment to Him. Rather, it is so that we will grow in our own awareness of what our hearts beat for and how deep our love is for Him. God knew Abraham’s heart when He asked him to sacrifice Isaac, but Abraham did not fully know his own heart of love for God until he was put to the test. God’s examination ultimately proved to Abraham why he would be known for all eternity as the father of the faith (Romans 4:16).

The examinations we go through are the proving grounds of our faith. It is only when we emerge on the other side of the furnace of affliction that we know how real our faith truly is. We need look no further than the story of Job to see this truth. God allowed Satan to examine Job through unimaginable trials, and what was the result? Job never rejected God’s right to examine him; he trusted God through every trial, even when he could not trace Him in them. And in the end, Job acknowledged that he was a sinner in need of a Savior (Job 42:4-6), and he rejoiced that “My Redeemer lives, and . . . in the end he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25).

Know this: Whatever depth of faith you have today is a result of the examinations you have been given by God in the past. Growth does not happen when we are secure within our zones of comfort. It is when God forces us into those places where we are most uncomfortable that He is conforming us more and more into the image of His beloved Son.

Our Sovereign Lord is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28)—even those things that don’t feel so good at the time.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!