Daily devotional · September 24
Restoring the Years
“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for He has given you the autumn rains for your vindication. He sends you showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before. The threshing floors will be full of grain, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts— the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust — My great army that I sent against you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are satisfied. You will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you. My people will never again be put to shame. Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.”
Joel writes after a devastating plague of locusts that stripped the land. Fields lay bare and hope was thin. Into that loss God speaks a promise of rain and of abundant grain, wine and oil, and then a line that reaches deeper than the harvest: I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, as Joel 2:25 says. God does not only fix what is broken; he makes room for gladness after years of lack. This is not a guarantee that everything returns exactly as before, but it is a promise that no season of loss is wasted or beyond his repair. Autumn rains were what farmers longed for, and they are a fitting image of grace falling on dry ground. Today, name one area of life that feels stripped: time, health, trust, a dream. Ask God, plainly, to restore what he will, and thank him for one thing he has already given back.
Also read
“I will repay you for the years eaten by locusts— the swarming locust, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust — My great army that I sent against you.”
Joel 2:25
Prayer
Lord of the harvest, restore what has been lost in my life. Thank you that no season is wasted in your hands.