Re: POWER of PRAYER- No Matter Which Faith You Follow=GOD is With You
Restoring the Wasted Years
"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten" (Joel 2:25, NKJV).
This promise is incredible! We want to make up those lost years when we weren't following him, to make amends and repay him. However, God says, "You cannot repay me for a single wasted hour. Turn from your sins, and walk before me in righteousness, and I will make up all the losses."
To repentant sinners, the Lord declares, "Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done marvelous things" (Joel 2:21). You need not be ashamed of your wasted years. God is going to remove from you the evil army, and you will eat and be satisfied. You will never again be ashamed (see Joel 2:19-20, 26-27).
You were born for his eternal purposes. He planned for you a life of satisfaction, joy and usefulness in his kingdom. Then sin entered, and God's plan for your life was interrupted. The devourer moved in, and years were wasted and lost.
Now, in Christ, all is new. The Lord removes all those wasted years and starts counting again from the moment you repent. All those blessings you missed were stored up. All the joy, peace, revelation and usefulness that you thought were dead and gone forever were actually kept by the Lord.
In hell, the damned may be haunted with a vision of what their lives could have been. Some may see what they lost. However, this is not so for the repentant. All will be restored. They need never again say, "Oh, what I missed. God had so much for me, but I blew it." No! God can restore all the wasted blessings.
The Lord desires to pour out on us all the blessings and joys in him that we missed earlier. Yet he does not make it all up with outpourings alone. The outpourings become overflowings, and "the threshing floors shall be full of wheat; the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil" (Joel 2:24). There is power in repentance, and it restores to us all that the cankerworm destroyed. God resurrects it all!
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I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4
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