“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm... You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will My people be shamed" (Joel 2:25-26).
Father God, Jehovah Jireh, You are the source of all—provider of every resource under heaven. Lord, we remember the prayer Solomon prayed when he dedicated the temple, “When famine or plague comes to the land, or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers…, and when a prayer or plea is made by anyone among your people Israel… then hear from heaven, your dwelling place…” (2 Chronicles 6:28-30).
You answered, with this promise: “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14).
And now here in the time of the prophet Joel, so many years later, we see your people in the very predicament Solomon foresaw when he prayed that prayer. They had greatly disobeyed You, and their land was being devoured physically and spiritually.
But You, O God, are a promise keeping God! You invited them to come back to You, “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning” (Joel 2:12). And when they prayed, you responded out of Your bounty and Your compassion.
Oh Lord, we too, are surrounded by locust and plague. At every turn, we confront great locusts and young locusts, other locusts and locust swarms. They devour our children, our schools, our cities, our nations.
But though You speak into our hearts the same message of love and invitation, we continue to resist and rebel. Open our eyes, Lord! You are not asking us to return to a political outlook, a philosophical viewpoint, an academic frame. You are not asking us to return to a social ideal. You are asking us to return to You. You are asking us to seek Your face.
O God, have mercy on us. Help us to recognize our desperation. Help us to humble ourselves. Help us to cry out in prayer. Help us to seek Your face. Help us to turn from our wicked ways. Begin a work of true repentance in every one of us. Individually.
Father, thank You for the hope Joel gave, even in the dire consequences of disobedience, Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity (Joel 2:12).
Help us Lord! Firestorms are raging all around us. Literally and figuratively. Only You alone can lift us out of the ash pile of mounting disorder, bitter division, and deepening despair. We look to You, our only Savior.
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