Our theme for this month: “Wisdom”
Our Bible verse for today: “Even now – this is the Lord’s declaration – turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the Lord your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster.” Joel 2:12-13 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “The smart thing is to repent and return to the Lord.”
In recent years I’ve been spending a lot of time in jail. Oh, not on the wrong side of the bars, fortunately, but visiting with those who are. Most of those people are young to middle-aged adults who have spent years addicted to drugs and alcohol, and they have usually supported themselves with a life of petty crimes.
Almost always they are remorseful and they have a strong desire to change the direction of their lives. And almost always they profess to either be Christian, or to have a Christian background in that they were raised in church and someone in their family (usually a mother or grandmother) was a strong Christian.
In every case my advice to them is to return to the Lord. First and foremost, before anything else in your life is going to get straightened out, you have got to get right with God. Once you do that, there is then a solid foundation upon which God can rebuild the rest of your life.
That was the message the Old Testament prophet Joel had for the nation of Israel. As a nation they had wandered far from the Lord and they had lived in ways that were way outside of His established standards. Through Joel God called the people back to himself. He even went so far as to paint a picture for them of the ways in which they would be blessed once they were back in right relation with Him:
“Look, I am about to send you grain, new wine, and olive oil. You will be satiated with them, and I will no longer make you a disgrace among the nations.” “Joel 2:19
“I will repay you the years that the swarming locust ate, the young locust, the destroying locust, and the devouring locust – My great army that I sent against you.” Joel 2:25
I like the way verse 25 reads in the King James Version: “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.”
The past is the past and what happened, happened. That can’t be changed. But God can repair the damage; He can restore what was lost; and He can then fill that new and restored and faithful life with all sorts of bountiful new fruit. Yes, God can restore the years the locust have eaten. But the answer is always to first return to the Lord. Biblical wisdom teaches us that we must repent and return, then the Lord can and will bless.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 