Getting back what the locust ate.
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,[e]
My great army which I sent among you.
The consuming locust,
And the chewing locust,[e]
My great army which I sent among you.
God has been placing this area of Scripture onto my heart lately. The fact of the matter is that I have allowed the locusts eat a lot of my life, from my time with God, to relationships, my health, and even jobs. I allowed myself to get caught up in a mighty depression, and lost my focus upon God. In the last few months, I have been seeking God more, and He has been restoring the time the locusts have eaten away from me. Today, I want to look at what it means to be restored to Christ.
One of the awesome attributes of God is that He can restore the lost time.When we are restored in God's eyes, He brings us back to the place we were before we walked off the narrow path. God also comes back into our lives, and helps us to deal with the issue that caused us to walk off the narrow path in the first place, whether it is due to sin, unbelief, anger, not trusting God, whatever the issue may be. For me I would say it was a combination of all the above, that caused me to need to be restored to Christ. In Acts 3:19-21, we are told how we can become restored to God:
Acts 3:19-21 Repent
therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that
times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before,[a] 21 whom
heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which
God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world
began
To become restored we have repent to God for our sins and transgressions. Sometimes the hardest thing we can do is repent. According to the Strongs Concordance, to repent means ' to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins'. To be able to do this however, it means that we have to humble ourselves and admit we were wrong in the past, and ask for forgiveness of our transgressions. It is hard to do this many times, because we think we are right, and we are generally full of pride and self. We think we are on the 'right' path and no one (not even God) can convince us we are far away from the narrow path.
When we humble ourselves and ask for God to forgive us of our sins, He is faithful to forgive us of our sins. God then can start to restore us and the time we lost chasing the works of the flesh listed below in Galatians 5:16-21.
Galatians 5:16-21
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For
the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things
that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[c] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Contrast that list to the list of the fruit of the Spirit:
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,[c] fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders,[d] drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Contrast that list to the list of the fruit of the Spirit:
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
God also will give us the fruits of the Spirit, as we are being restored to Christ :o). Non-believers, (and believers) can actually see this fruit maturing in someone that is growing closer to Christ. Many times we will not see this growth in ourselves, and I am glad of this, so God gets ALL the glory, and so I do not puff myself up in pride, to say 'look at me, see how spiritual I am'. I can not do anything pleasing to God however, until I ask for His forgiveness, and ask Him to restore me. As I press towards God, He will restore to me the time the locusts ate. God will do the same for you, all you have to do is ASK God to work on your heart, and allow God to work.
In Christ,
-Kevin
PS All Scripture is from the NKJV
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