“I will repay you for the years the locust have eaten.” Joel 2:25 NIV
“You can exchange the worst that happened for something better than you ever hoped.”
My thoughts today are about “the great exchange.”
Not all times are good. Not all things end well. There will be times when things seem to be hard and not easy, loss and not gain, and gone not to return. You did your best and it didn’t work. You tried hard but came up short. You were diligent but faced reversal of fortune no fault of your own. Sometimes that happens even to the best of people, even to those who worked the hardest and deserved a break the most. It seems that everything you worked for is just ashes at your feet.
Those situations are difficult, and you may feel tempted to cut your losses, walk away, and just try to get past it. The questions race through your mind, second guessing every decision, every action, every event and circumstance. But you don’t find the reason; you can’t make sense of it, no matter how hard you try, no matter how many times you replay it in your mind. A friendship unravels; a door of opportunity closes; a well earned reward isn’t given; an expected promotion doesn’t come; a dream isn’t realized – and you feel at a loss as to why and what you will do next.
God offers you another alternative. If you will bring it all to Him – the broken dreams, the plans that didn’t work out, the best efforts that failed, your heart breaks, disappointments, and things not understood – and trust Him with it all, He knows how to restore what seems to have been wasted effort, what has become worthless. You can exchange the worst that happened for something better than you ever hoped.
God says that He will “comfort all that mourn, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” Isaiah 61:3 NIV. The idea is exchange – the great exchange. You give God what you never wanted and don’t now need, and God gives you what you longed for and could not have gotten on your own.
You exchange what looks and feels to you like nothing more than ashes, the residue of yesterday’s reality, and He gives you the beauty of new beginnings. You trust Him with what caused you grief and disappointment and He pours over you His comfort that soothes your soul. You release to Him your heaviness of heart and He heals your wounded heart through praise.
My prayer for you today is that the your biggest loss will become your greatest gain.