And I will restore to you the years that the caterpillar ate, the jumping, the revoltón and the lobster, my great army that I sent against you.
Joel 2:25
While being hungry for Christ exposes us to trials, it also exposes us to the great blessings that come from his hand. As we draw closer to Him, we will hear His voice more clearly, which warns us, directs us, conquers us, and we will find a joy we have never known before.
But now we could ask ourselves about all that time it has taken us to get to that point. How many years do we waste before we repent and give everything to Christ? How much of the past was devoured by the caterpillar of sin and rebellion? We know that we are forgiven and that the past is forgotten, because everything is covered under the blood of Christ. But would not it be wonderful to recover those lost years and live them for the glory of the Lord?
In his last days, the apostle Paul reflected on his life and gave this testimony: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. For the rest, the crown of righteousness is kept for me. "When I read that passage, not long ago, Paul's testimony pierced my soul. Something I could not shake was hammering my heart for several weeks.
Finally, in prayer, I had to confess: "Lord, I do not think I can say that together with Paul. I do not think I have fought a good battle of faith! "Maybe I could say that about the first fifteen years of my ministry and the last ten years, but in the period of
There is a gap in the middle during which I think I wasted time. It was not that I fell into some deep and sinful sin, but rather that I was adrift, simply because I was not giving my best for Christ. Also in my marriage I can look back with a certain amount of shame, because I wasted many valuable hours without feeding or enjoying the relationship I have had.
Maybe, like me, you can look back with regret at those wasted years. I think of an entrepreneur in our church who squandered long years of drinking and abusing drugs. He was an adulterer who abandoned his wife for several weeks in a row; a wild man, driven by lust and greed. Today he burns in fervor for God, is growing in Christ and wants to replace everything to his wife. But he still feels the shame of the years that the caterpillar destroyed.
The truth is that the closer you get to the heart of Christ, the more grief caused by those wasted years. The more hungry Christ has, the more he cries out to Him from the depths: "Dear Lord, how could I offend you like this? How could I be so deceived?
I took a few years that were yours and I wasted them! Oh God, your Word is now so precious to me, and I am so excited to be growing in knowledge of you! How much growth in Christ I wasted, how much revelation I lost! How much blessing and anointing I messed up! "
But there is something amazing: it does not matter if you have been walking with Christ for thirty years or for thirty days, God can restore all your wasted years, and He will! The prophecy of Joel that I quoted at the beginning of this chapter was addressed to the nation of Israel, but it is also applicable today to the body of Christ and to individual believers. God has a lot to tell us in that prophecy, both about his character and about our future.
