Listen

I will repay you for the years that the cutting locust, the swarming locust, the hopping locust, and the devouring locust have eaten—my great army, which I sent against you.

You will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has done wonders for you; and my people will never again be put to shame.

You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God—no other exists; never again will my people be put to shame.

Joel 2:25-27

Think

This Thanksgiving week, we discover in the scriptures a recipe for cultivating a life of gratitude…

Ingredient #5: Presence

This passage from Joel is better known because it was quoted by Peter in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. What is often lost for those that only read Acts 2 is the context of Joel 2. The people have been promised restoration, flowing rivers, and abundant food, but right now they are still living in a dry and barren land. They are still suffering.

Though we may not relate to a locust plague, we too know what it is like to live through destruction. The devastating end of a friendship, a marriage, the estrangement of a sibling or a child. The fall, diagnosis, or surgery that your loved one never fully recovered from. Each of these circumstances lay waste to our worlds.

But the power of Joel 2:25-27 is that God is not watching from afar but rather is in the midst of God’s people. God is walking among them and with them. God is walking among us and with us. God is in our midst.

Kelli Kirksey

Pray

Thank you, God, for never leaving me.

Thank you for sitting beside me in the most devastating moments when I feel lost and abandoned.

Thank you for walking beside me on the mountain and in the valley.

Amen

Go

From the corners of my deepest shame
The empty places where I’ve worn your name
Show me the love I say I believe

Oh, help me to lay it down
Oh, Lord I lay it down

Lauren Daigle in “Once and for All” (2015)