Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in YouTube song and lyrics from Lauren Harris singing … You Restore My Soul … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, can seek after restoration if we’re willing to surrender our lives to our Lord.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Joel 2:25a [NLT] … The Lord says, “I will give you back what you lost to the swarming locusts,… ”
… God’s promise of restoration (in Christ) …
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Highlight Passage [context]: Joel 2:18-27 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God has promised His people that He will restore to them what He allowed others to devour of their promised lands.
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Reference Passage : … 2 Chronicles 7:14 [NLT] … 14 Then if my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.
… God promises restoration of our lands and lives … IF [and only if] … we’re willing to humble ourselves for restoration before His throne of grace.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… David, the shepherd, sings of God’s promise to restore us unto Himself.
Reference Passage : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… PTL … God's mercies, which we seek for restoration, are new every morning!!
Reference Passage : … 1st John 1:8-9 [NLT] … 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
… God’s promise to cleanse (i.e., restore) us from any/all sin if we’re willing to confess and repent.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, uses a historical examples of insect infestations to illustrate how God can allow natural pestilence to show the sinful how we must humbly surrender and depend on our Lord for restoration. The ODB author writes … A 2003 infestation of Mormon crickets caused more than $25 million in lost crops. The crickets came in such numbers that people couldn’t so much as take a step without finding one underfoot. The grasshopper-like insect, named for attacking the crops of the Utah pioneers in 1848, can eat an astounding thirty-eight pounds of plant material in their lifetimes, despite being merely two to three inches long. The impact of infestations on famers’ livelihoods—and the overall economy of a state or country—can be devastating.
It’s a pertinent word picture that the Prophet Joel uses [see highlight passage] to show what satan, the world, and our selfish human nature has done - and is doing - to our livelihood. Our spiritual enemies are devouring our world even as we watch the news any night; and what the song and scriptures above sing and say to us is that God still promises that He will restore what we lose to the “locusts” devouring the world … IF … we’re willing to humbly repent and seek God’s restoring grace.
And oh how I pray for that everyday as I come here seeking to know my God more intimately thru His word and humbly praying that He will forgive us and restore what the locusts of our selfishness have eaten.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your restoring mercies being new morning.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me today to pray that God will restore us SOON and bring us out of the valley of the shadow of death into His garden again. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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