OCTOBER 2021 | THE MONTH OF RESTORATION

Key Text: Joel 2:25

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.”

Praise GOD! God is good, all the time and all the time, GOD is good and that is His nature! Wow!

It is such a big blessing to be alive today to cross over to the tenth month of the year 2021! I can’t thank God enough for His loving kindness and mercy. He is good, good Father. It is written in Revelation 1:8 that He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending; the one who is, who was, and who is to come; the Almighty! He makes known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. His purpose for us will stand and He will do according to His will for us (Isaiah 46:10). There is no reason whatsoever for us to worry or be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving we should present our requests to GOD. Through this, God’s peace which transcends all understanding/is beyond comprehension will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

This is a month of restoration. Faith tells me that God is restoring us to fullness. There are situations in life that had robbed us of the most precious aspects of our being/existence (loved ones, precious gifts including personal property, emotional gifts such as love, joy, peace of mind, economic gifts such as jobs and opportunities) and we felt as though our world was ending. That was then, that is how it turned out. But this is a new day and month that the Lord has made and all we have to do is rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).

I see favor, I see increase. I see God continuing to be our refuge and strength; our ever present help in time of trouble/need (Isaiah 46:1). There are so many things that GOD initiated in our lives and we can be assured that He who began the good work in us will carry it on to completion (Philippians 1:6).

One thing I have consistently learnt about life is that all things are possible for them who believe (Mark 9:23) and that there is nothing too hard for God because He is the God of all flesh/mankind (Jeremiah 32:27). Life pushes us into thinking that the harder we work, the richer or the more prosperous we become. That is true to a certain extent. But there is the other side of the coin to the effect that it is all by God’s wonderful grace and that sometimes, the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned but that time and chance happens to them/us all (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

By way of concluding this text, when I talk about God restoring to us the years that the locust has eaten, I am talking about God giving back to us those precious gifts that accrue to us but which the enemy had stolen, killed and destroyed. We are regaining our strength; we are recovering fully from the years of the outbreak and prevalence of COVID-19 and its effects; we are recovering and having restoration to flourishing relationships and marriage that the enemy had interfered with; we are getting restored to our very first love. Amen. And through this restoration, we will live and not die and we will tell of God’s good deeds throughout the earth (Psalm 118:17).

Glory to God! Amen.

Wishing you the very best of all.

Robert Mugisa Abwooli.