By Anna...
Joel 2:25-27 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be put to shame. Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the Lord your God and there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.”
These verses have been on my mind a lot lately, but it was just today that I actually discovered where exactly in the Bible they were. (Silly me.) And the reality amazed me. It is no coincidence that He put it on my heart to write today—and even found me this particular verse. This one, out of thousands of verses in His word. THIS one. It’s been my promise for a long time now. And every time I’ve needed it, He’s given its comfort and so much more to me…and now I know where it is. (And have underlined it heavily…no worries!)
Think about it, though. (You don’t need me; use your own head!) Time. It’s the one thing practically every human being with a brain on this planet has said, at one point or another, is irreplaceable. They often disagree on Time being nice or nasty, but nobody can restore it to anyone. Time—the amount of life you spend on this earth—is precious, the most valuable resource you have, and chose what or who you invest it in very carefully. And the reason it’s so precious is mainly because no one knows just how much of it they have. There is no predetermined length or requisite amount allotted to each person. You could have five minutes left. You could have five years, or fifty, or five seconds. You just don’t know. It’s what you do in that Time that matters.
But so often people take it—Time and Life…kind of interchangeable here—for granted. We think we have years and years ahead of us. We disregard Time’s value. We don’t live like we’re dying…but we should. Because only God knows what will happen to your Time in the next nanosecond, or the next hour, or the next day.
And yet we fritter away our Times, our Lives, on worthless things. We put off spending Time on the people—especially the Person—or the things that are really important. We think we’ll do it tomorrow. We think we’ll do it next week, or next Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or next year.
And the next thing you know, you’re facing the King of Kings at the judgement seat, and He’ll ask you, with a voice like the thunder of many waters, just what you did with the Time He gave you. And you’ll know He knows anyway.
(Hang on…there’s good news coming in a minute.)
But occasionally there are those times when not just us but other people behave like those locusts and seem to “consume” or “chew” away at our time. Now, nobody can take away what God gives—hence the clause in the verse “My great army which I sent among you”—and what other people can do to those of us who are under God’s protection is extremely limited, but every now and then somebody (or something, such as Death) comes along and rips away those whom you loved and considered precious, who you invested your Time, your very Life, in.
Now comes the good news.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
God can and will work both of those “locusts” to your advantage. Whatever happens to you is under His control and therefore in your best interest. We can’t lose. Literally. It isn’t possible. The taking away of what/who you invested your Time in will ultimately prove to be what’s best for you. And—doesn’t God deal WONDROUSLY with us?—He can RESTORE the years the locusts ate. He can do far more than simply compensate for those years that were wasted by us and our years that were “wasted” by others. And as for those whom Death “took”, there’s an eternal Reunion coming up…and hopefully, you’ve RSVP’d.
