Joel 2:13


Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity ~ Joel 2:13

In the Old Testament especially, when a person was grieving in remorse, either personally or for the community, they would pour ashes over themselves and tear their clothing in response. But, just as washing the outside of the cup does not clean the inside, neither does tearing the clothes display the inner heart. A penitent heart is called a “broken heart” or a “contrite heart”, and this is the offering God wants to see from us. This is because when we come to the Lord in this way, we pour out all that is diseased within us, expelling our wayward thoughts and feelings, and those mental images which go against what God has deemed as holy. It is only through true repentance we come into the grace of Jesus Christ and are then saved from our sins. Joel states that if we return to our God, He is gracious and merciful, and both words are intense. He is saying God is very gracious, very merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, or here in the NIV version, abounding in love. God endures our wickedness from a patience beyond what we as humans know. God desires that all would come to Him, and repent before Him, not because He is a God that puts His “thumb down” so to speak, He has laws, yes, but they are to protect, to bless, to bring prosperity and relationship. So often people think they have to give up all to follow God, and that all will suffocate them, but the truth is, when we give up our all, God gives us all we need and had dreamed of. Taste and see that the Lord is good, says Psalm 34:8. He is a good, good God. Our land needs to begin the trek back to Him. It really is not far at all to find mercy and grace and abounding love.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Proverbs 18:2

Image
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in sharing their own opinions ~ Proverbs 18:2 If we are going to understand something, we must fully digest it so that when we speak, we speak with wisdom. When we have only half truths in our mind, our words become empty and senseless. We then puff out air rather than understanding when we speak. A wise person will want to improve their mind through learning in various ways from the world around them. A person who delights in spiritual understanding will find peace and enjoyment in reading the Word of God on a daily basis, and in participating with God’s people in a learning and praising environment – the church! We come together in corporate worship with the understanding that not one of us knows all things, but we bend our mind and heart to learn what God has to show and say to us. A foolish person makes a show of what they “know” to please their friends or to save face in front of them. More often a wise person will hold t
Read more

Romans 8:26

Image
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans ~ Romans 8:26 Many days, many times, I have the words for prayer. It comes forth and flows fairly naturally as I converse with my Lord God. I hope in the God I worship to hear me, and to receive my words, as I pray in the name of Jesus and believe in Him, my intercessor. He is my Living Saviour, my High Priest, standing at the right hand of God the Father. But there are times when my pain has been so deep that my words will not come. There are times when my agony is so piercing that what words I may speak would not be enough. And so, in my deep, black moments, I come before my God and let my darkest emotions erupt in sounds that only He can understand. The Holy Spirit within me cries out in my stead, and He becomes my second intercessor. It is not that He is not there with me in all my prayers, but there are times wh
Read more

Isaiah 43:19

Image
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ~ Isaiah 43:19 When we meet a challenge, we are often found discouraged, lost, even hopeless. Nothing is working, everything seems to be against us. We do not know how to move forward, so we remain curled up in a ball. Then, a glimmer of light shines through! Hope is regained and movement is stirred within. Don’t we become excited when we begin to feel it? God moves like that. We cannot see our way around it, but He can and does. And He makes a way for us out of the calamity of our fears. It is the feeling of springtime after a long winter, or the smell of fresh cut grass. Life stirs within and we move and we see what God saw all the time – the answer to our dilemma. Our desert place becomes an oasis, and we can do what we are called to do. Something totally unexpected happens, something unheard of, but it begins in our life, and we feel the
Read more