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by Bible League International

Verse of the Day and Devotion

I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. – Amos 9:14 ESV

Devotion

They brought you in to turn things around for the better. They brought you in because they perceived that the hand of the Lord was upon you. Maybe it was a situation of stagnation and apathy that needed to be fired up. Things had not moved forward to any significant degree in a long time. Maybe it was a situation of a reversal of momentum. Worse than stagnation, it was a situation where things were being sucked downward in a death spiral. Maybe it was even worse than that. Maybe things had hit rock bottom and everything was lying there in complete ruins.

Whatever it was, they brought you in because they perceived the Lord would work through you to restore the situation. After all, that’s what the Lord does. That’s what the Lord always does. He finds people He can work through to “rebuild the ruined cities.” That is, He finds people He can use to fire up the situations that are stagnant and apathetic, to reverse the situations that are being sucked downward in a death spiral, and to rebuild the situations that are lying in ruins at rock bottom.

It is even better than that. The Lord will not only work through you to restore the situation back to some semblance of normal, but to take it to a whole new level. You will not only rebuild the ruined cities, you will “plant vineyards and drink their wine.” You will, that is, turn the situation into one that is a going concern. The people that rely on your cause for what they need will receive what they need. The people that work with you will also receive what they need. No one will be left behind. No one will be left out.

The Lord will work through you to “make gardens and eat their fruit,” to make a situation that is bountiful and beautiful. For you and your people, it will be a little like the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8-9). It will be a little like the new heaven and the new earth in the day to come (Isaiah 65; Revelation 21:1).