Tough times require tough measures
Its been a while since I last wrote, I was finding it hard to be disciplined in writing each day. I will endeavor to write as a minimum once a week.
I have been reading the first 2 chapters of the book of Joel, its in the old testament, its a small and easy read. The people of God had turned their backs on God during a tough time of drought and famine. As you read the book you see that they had a difficult time.
The first thing that I am reminded of is that when you become a follower of God it doesn’t guarantee that you will have an easy life and that bad things wont happen to you. I certainly don’t have a solid reason other than Sin (disobedience towards God) as the source of a lot of evil in the world.
But Joel here brings a word from God, a call if you like to the nation. I have recently watched the Kings Speech at the cinema and was reminded of the radio broadcasts that were made as the British Empire entered the war against Germany. I imagine that this word that Joel brought had the same sort of impact as the Kings speech did on a nation.
His word was to return back to God with all their heart, with fasting which I believe to be a symbol ‘saying nothing is more important to me than you Lord’, with weeping which to me symbolizes being sorry for turning their back on God and with mourning which symbolizes a desire to walk with God again.
No one within the nation was exempt from the call. And as they returned to God they received great blessing, the drought ended and they received a promise that God would repay all that the locusts had eaten. Now it’s not all cotton wool in the book as we also see what happens to the nations that don’t turn back to God.
What I want to focus on today is the call. You may be going through a tough time, you may have turned your back on God. I would say to you today that just because bad and tough times happen in our lives it doesn’t mean that God is angry or against us. Hang in there, trust in God and God will repay the years that the locusts have eaten. Maybe you have turned away from God, then my call to you is to return to Him with all your heart. I dont mean say a quick prayer and all your prayers will be answered, God is after your heart, a dedication, a true turning and trusting in Him. And then you can hold onto the promise that He will return what the locusts have stolen, unfortunately we are not given a time scale but we are given hope.
So we have a choice, we can be stubborn and allow our pride to stop us from turning to God. Or we can surrender, turn to Him with all our heart and stand on the promise.
Lord as we trust in you as we return to you we stand on the promise of your provision. Forgive us for not trusting in you for all our needs, help us when we can’t see a way forward or a way out of tough times, our hope and trust is in you.
Amen
