Locusts

 The LORD says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. Joel 2:25....."Living in past failure invites the locusts to eat up our present and future." Chris Tiegreen

Locusts invade our life from so many different directions. In Joel, the locusts had come upon the nation of Israel because of their sin and disobedience. Yet, when the people repented, God promised to restore to them all that the locusts had destroyed. All and more. "Locusts" can ravage us because of our sinful lifestyles. We will reap what we sow. Yet the locust can also come about from the normal events of life. His Word says that it rains on the just and the unjust. We live in a fallen world with the presence of a real and evil enemy, the devil. No one fully escapes the effects of living in that world. We also suffer locusts as a result of poor, even sinful choices. From our personal failures, as well as the actions and choices of others. The result can be devastation, a life stripped bare by "the locusts." The result of that can be so destructive that the barren lifescape around us crushes us, steals all joy and hope. All we can see is what the locusts have done, and we can't hear His promise of what He will do.

God has promised that all those who believe upon His Son shall enter into a "living hope." Tiegreen says that "A life of hope is a life based on truth. Hope knows who God is." Reality for the believer is not found in our circumstances. It's found in what He says. The Rock of His Word is our true reality. Sadly, too many are more convinced by what they see and feel than what He has said and is saying. They are trapped in the results of what has happened, whether by their actions or another's. Because of that, the locusts never leave. They assault the present and assail the future. We need to be rid of the locusts or they'll continue to devour our present and future just as they did our past.

Today, are you living as a prisoner of the locusts? Do they continue to strip and savage your life? If they are, and regardless of where their source has come from, if you will turn to Him, and turn away from them, He will, as He has promised, do away with the swarms, and as you trust and obey Him, restore all that they have eaten up. His Word says that He has, in Christ, given us a future and a hope. Receive Him and His Life into your present, give Him your past, and fully trust Him for your future, and then behold the work of restoration He will do. I know this, because I have lived it. I am still living it. Four decades ago I left the small Virginia town I had been pastoring in with all I owned in the backseat and trunk of a compact car. As a result of events, most of them beyond my control, the locusts had overrun my life. In the midst of the swarms, I chose to put my foundering faith and hope in Him. I chose to believe the promise of Joel 2:25. It didn't happen overnight, and much healing and restoration was yet to come, but He did redeem the past, the present, and my future. The locusts were long ago cast out, and His work of restoration goes on in my life even today. I'm not any more special than you. I simply chose to believe His promise about the locusts. He makes the same promise to you. Will you believe it as well?

Blessings,

Pastor O