Faith's Checkbook

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May 18

May 18
Losses Overcome
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten. (Joel 2:25)
Yes, those wasted years over which we sigh shall be restored to us. God can give us such plentiful
grace that we shall crowd into the remainder of our days as much of service as will be some
recompense for those years of unregeneracy over which we mourn in humble penitence. The locusts
of backsliding, worldliness, and lukewarmness, are now viewed by us as a terrible plague. Oh, that they
had never come near us! The Lord in mercy has now taken them away, and we are full of zeal to
serve Him. Blessed be His name, we can raise such harvests of spiritual graces as shall make our
former barrenness disappear. Through rich grace, we can turn to account for our bitter experience and
use it to warn others. We can become more rooted in humility, childlike dependence, and penitent
spirituality by reason of our former shortcomings. If we are more watchful, zealous, and tender,
we shall gain by our lamentable losses. The wasted years, by a miracle of love, can be restored.
Does it seem too great a boon? Let us believe in it and live for it, and we may yet realize it, even as
Peter became all the more useful a man after his presumption was cured by his discovered
weakness. Lord, aid us by Thy grace.