May 18
LOSSES OVERCOME
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten"
Joel 2:25
Yes, those wasted years over which we sigh shall be restored to us.
God can give us such plentiful grace that we shall crowd into the
remainder of our days as much of service as will be some recompense
for those years of unregeneracy over which we mourn in humble
penitence.
The locusts of backsliding, worldliness, lukewarmness, are now
viewed by us as a terrible plague. Oh, that they had never come near
us! The Lord in mercy has now taken them away, and we are full of zeal
to serve Him. Blessed be His name, we can raise such harvests of
spiritual graces as shall make our former barrenness to disappear.
Through rich grace we can turn to account our bitter experience, and
use it to warn others. We can become the more rooted in humility,
childlike dependence, and penitent spirituality, by reason of our
former shortcomings. If we are the more watchful, zealous, and tender,
we shall gain by our lamentable losses. The wasted years, by a miracle
of love, can be restored. Does it seem too great a boon? Let us
believe for it, and live for it, and we may yet realize it, even as
Peter became all the more useful a man after his presumption was cured
by his discovered weakness. Lord, aid us by thy grace.