“Hear this, ye old men...Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten...I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm...and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of [you], and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.”
(Joel 1:2-4;2:23-27)
Such texts as the above were written for our example and instruction, says the Apostle Paul. Most of us have fallen into the world’s philosophy that lost time can never be recovered, that opportunities missed are gone forever; but here is a promise of God that refutes that theory. With God all things are possible- even by-passing time.
If you have missed His plan for your life up to this time, take heart! It’s not too late to begin again. The Bible is a Book of new beginnings, of starting over again. We are told in the last book of God’s Book, that even He begins again. God delights in giving His children a chance to start over. No amount of past failure makes future victory less obtainable.
I’ve found in my own life and ministry that God has, on many occasions, taken my past failings to qualify me for future success. He knew I needed the humiliation and brokenness of defeat to loosen my tight hold on an independent spirit. Jacob’s life was one humiliating failure after another, each being accompanied by an exaltation, of a kind.
“...before honour is humility.”
(Prov. 18:12)
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