The one thought I believe most of us are pondering is when and how is God going restore what so many have lost in this season.

According to USAFACTS.ORG as of August 8, 2020, the nationwide initial unemployment claims totaled 971,000 and as of this date continuing claims are hovering right at 14,844,000. This number only reflects individuals not the total number within their individual households.

It’s acutely obvious that a great number of families are financially struggling trying to keep ends met—not to mention safe!

Financial burdens is only one end of a much broader spectrum because financial burdens often leads to a host of other worldly and spiritual repercussions.

So, to ponder when will God restore what so many have lost is not at all unusually because or nation is need of help that our government can’t necessarily provide!

But, I have good news; God promises to deliver the impossible. In Joel 2:25 we learn that ‘God will restore the years that the locusts has eaten’. The immediate meaning of this bilateral promise is clear. God’s people had suffered the complete destruction of their entire harvest through swarms of locusts that marched like an insect army through the fields, destroying the crops, multiplying their number as they went.

For four consecutive years, the harvest was completely wiped out. God’s people were brought to their knees in more ways than one. But “the Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people.” God said, “Behold I am sending to you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied (Joel 2:18-19).

In the coming years, God said, their fields would yield an abundance that would make up for what had been lost: “The threshing floor shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. . . . You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied” (Joel 2:24, 26). This wonderful promise for the people meant that years of abundant harvests would follow the years of desolation brought about by the locusts.

Now, feel free to substitute locusts with ‘COVID’ and or any other ‘thing’ that has caused you or someone you know to be adversely impacted in this season!

Before I close, I have to let you in on one infinitesimal condition. The people in Joel’s time had to repent and turn back to God in order to receive the bilateral promise of restoration. God literally exchanged His restorative blessings for their faithful obedience and that’s exactly what He is calling us to do!

There is no doubt that God is able to restore the beaten, the bruised, and the broken. God has promised to not only deliver us, but to give us ALL THAT WE WOULD HAVE HAD during this season of lost. (Somebody say amen!)

God wants us to bring our sin and shame to Him. In return, He will turn our past guilt into weapons for His glory, and like He said in the above passage from Joel, the time we’ve lost to shame and darkness will be restored to us. God will restore what was lost when we turn our hearts, souls and minds back to Him!