JOEL 2:25-26
25. 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.
26. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed. KJV.
Isaiah 4:4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgment and by the Spirit of burning.
God knows that we are fleshly beings in need of a complete make-over, inside and out. When Peter was about to deny Jesus, He told Him Satan had asked to sift each of the disciples as grain. Sometimes we are in the sifting process.
Our life is shaken back and forth until all of the bad particles are removed from us. Then only the good part is left, and the Lord will restore the hard times of suffering. Then there are the times when the locust gets into our lives and eats everything in sight, and nothing is left. These are the times when we cannot understand the reason behind it all but praise Him anyway.
Habakkuk 3:17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. KJV.
19. The Lord God is my strength my personal bravery and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror, but to walk) and make spiritual progress upon my high places of trouble, suffering or responsibility! Amp.
Before we come into fruitfulness, we must learn to endure the pain of unfruitfulness in the right way. This scripture is saying that we need the Lord to become our strength and our personal bravery. We have nothing without Him. So how do we handle the pain of our own weakness. Do we give up and blame God for our hard treatment? Do we stop praising?
We must always be thankful in any situation, especially in the very tough times. Have you ever had to do without food? I cannot imagine how they kept singing with no hope of provision. But each of us will have our own personal trial that will sift us as a grain of wheat, and it will remove the part that hinders the cleansing process. We must learn to sing in the hard times.
Once we have learned that He will never leave us or forsake us and will always supply our needs in every area, He will restore the years of painful trials and suffering and give us more than we can ever ask or think. Why? Just because He is so good and loves us so much!
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