“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you… And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered…” (Joel 2:25,32a).
All of us, to some degree or another, have gone through some devastated, wasted, blasted, dry years. We look back and sigh, “Oh, what a waste!”
It does not need to be so.
In my own life and in the lives of many other brethren I have seen this principle operative. As we turn to God and call on the name of the Lord, we are delivered; our devastated years get restored!
Between verse 25 and verse 32, God promised to restore to us the years that the locust has eaten, and He added some amazing, wonderful and extraordinary blessings.
Then in verse 32 He gave us the key to having all our devastated years restored, plus receiving all those promised blessings.
The key is so simple that it is easy to overlook! God simply said,
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.”
Yes! To be delivered from all the devastated years and obtain the blessings that replace them, we simply have to call on the name of the Lord.
Who qualifies? Any “whosoever!” That surely includes you and me!
There were four exceedingly difficult years in my Christian life in which I was in real despair. One day I discovered this promise in Joel and inwardly felt that the Lord was inviting me to pray His words, almost verbatim!
So I did. I prayed that promise.
To my amazement, the Lord restored those devastated years. I was thrilled. It was as if those wasted, blasted, dry years were totally erased!
But that was not all! Little did I imagine what God was yet going to do with those wasted four years! As time went by, God kept working in me and through me. To my great surprise, those same years began to become exceedingly precious! They became a plus, a great blessing, even a joy!
Dear reader, pray with me as follows:
Father, forgive me for the many times that I have been moaning and groaning instead of calling on Your name to restore the years that the locust has eaten.
Your bountiful promises are so wonderful!
I pray for my readers, that You would restore the years that the locust has eaten in their life!
Stir them to pray, to call on Your name for a total deliverance from the devastation of the past years!
I praise You for Your Almighty Name! Amen.
From Dialogues With God – Chapter 4