Joel considered the natural disaster of a locust plague to be a call to repentance and a preview of the end of the world. If we repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on us to prepare us for victory as the world ends.

Key word    REPENT
 
Key verse    "Yet even now, says the Lord, return to Me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the Lord, your God." —2:12-13
 
Command verse    "Blow the trumpet in Zion! Proclaim a fast, call an assembly; gather the people, notify the congregation; assemble the elders, gather the children and the infants at the breast." —2:15-16
 
Promise verse    "Then afterward I will pour out My Spirit." —3:1
 
Difficult verse    "I will assemble all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel." —4:2
 
Surprise verse    "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak man say, 'I am a warrior!' " —4:10
 
Prayer: Father, may I consider natural disasters a call to repentance (see Lk 13:1-5).