May 18

Charles Spurgeon · Faith's Checkbook

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, 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 to disappear. Through rich
   grace we can turn to account our bitter experience, and use it to warn
   others. We can become the more rooted in humility, childlike
   dependence, and penitent spirituality, by reason of our former
   shortcomings. If we are the 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
   for 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.