21/08/2026
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.Joel 2:25
What a promise from God and what imagery. “The years that the swarming locust has eaten”. All this time, it seems like it has disaster, suffering, and death written all over it. God says, “That’s not the end of the story I’m going to bring about restoration and redemption in a way that’s far beyond what you could imagine”.
Joel 2:25 shows that no loss is beyond God’s power to restore.
This is at the heart of the gospel that we believe. That darkness and suffering are not the end of the story for all who trust in Jesus. That death is not the end of the story for all who trust in Jesus. We worship and we have put our hope and our trust in the God who alone is able to restore and to redeem. To heal and to make whole that which is broken and lost and seems ruined.
And I just want to encourage you today, as you look at your past, to know that God is the Redeemer. He’s the One who redeems and restores years that this swarming locust may have eaten. And in your present, through any challenges you may be walking through right now. What hope you and I can have. That God is going to restore. And God is going to redeem hurt and pain and brokenness for all who trust in him. And for others who were walking alongside who were going through hard days.
I just think about one person I was talking with recently who’s been through hard years. And they just flat out said, “I love a good redemption story and I long for a good redemption story”. And the reality is, for all who trust in Jesus, all of our stories are a good redemption story. In the end will be a good restoration redemption story, not just good, glorious.
Joel 2:25 reminds us that God is always working for our renewal.
So we praise you, God, based on Joel 2:25 as theRestorer and the Redeemer. We praise you for how you did that for your people, as you promised in the book of Joel. How you did that for your people over and over and over again throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament. Lord, we praise you, Jesus, as the Redeemer at the center of all Scripture, the One who alone can make us new. We praise you for that reality.
