Wednesday, November 23, 2016

WITHERED JOY



Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.”

“Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth. Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the Lord.”

“The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.”

Joel 1:6-12

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, the first from the Book of Joel, we looked at the coming of a swarm of locusts and how destruction followed. We compared that locust swarm to the damaging nature of sin and the devastation of God’s judgment that comes in response to sin.

Today, we continue to look at the negative impact that sin can have on our lives as we continue to look at the ruin caused by the locust invasion. Let’s refresh by looking again at our scripture passage:

A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.”

“Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth. Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the Lord.”

“The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed. The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.”  Joel 1:6-12

When the locusts came, they had one goal in mind and one goal only. They came to completely devour everything crop in their path until nothing was left. The vines of the vineyards which produced a bountiful supply of wine were no match for the marauding insects. Ditto for the fig, palm, olive, and apple trees, all the trees of the field, as well as the flowing fields of wheat and barley. Nothing was left undevoured; everything was left in ruin.

This is what sin does to someone when it attacks. It eats away at the very moral fibers of a person until whatever was good within them is destroyed. What was once good and fruitful is left barren. A person who was once productive for God is now useless.

Note how the people of Israel would respond to the desolation and destruction of the locusts.

They would mourn like a person grieving in sackcloth, even the priests who minister before the Lord.

They would lament losing important elements needed for worshiping the Lord (the crops needed for the grain and drink offerings).

They would be left in despair over all they had lost, especially the farmers who had worked the fields, vineyards, and the orchards so hard to produce a crop harvest that was eaten away by the locusts.

All this would add up to the people seeing their joy wither like the stripped trees, vines, and plants. The vast desolation created an air of hopelessness and depression throughout the land.

Having ministered to a lot of people over my lifetime, I can tell you with complete assurance that these very symptoms felt by the people of God after the attack of the locusts are the same symptoms a person experiences when they have allowed sin to enter in and destroy something within their lives.

They mourn over the wrongs they committed like an Old Testament Israelites grieving in sackcloth.

They lament allowing sin to take away elements within them they once used to worship the Lord, elements like faithfulness and a desire for righteousness and holiness.

They despair over whatever sin has taken from them, like a relationship or job or freedom or any other negative outcome iniquity brings.

Finally, they discover their joy withered away and their strength along with it. Sin led them to a place where they thought they were happy but it was only a masquerade in the end. For after sin had destroyed what it set out to do, accomplishing the desires of Satan the enemy, then the deceptive veil of transgression is pulled back revealing the wicked depths to which a person has fallen and just how far away from God they have traveled. Typically, any false delights a person had through their sins are replaced by shame and guilt and disgust.

Friends, if this sounds like you, if you are the one who has been devoured by the “locusts” of sin, then today is the day to turn everything around and it starts by rejecting the sins that you have allowed to enter into your life and coming back to the Lord, repenting and seeking His forgiveness, mercy, and grace.

When you do this, you can rest assured that He will receive you back into His midst and put you back on the right path of life, a path that leads to rejuvenation and restoration, a path that puts you back in a place where you can be productive for Him and once again bear fruit in His kingdom, a path that guides you to where your once withered joy springs back to life in a big way. For when we are grounded in the Lord, the following truth from the scriptures is affirmed:

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

No comments: