Key verse: Joel 2: 12-13
"Even now, " declares the Lord, "return to Me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning." 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.
These few verses from the Prophet Joel are often quoted during the season of Lent--and for good reason. The 40 days of Lent are meant, in large part, to be a time of making our personal relationship with God our top priority; a time of repentance, and a time of turning back to God.
We tend to stray from God and His Word. We find it way too easy to follow our own path and to stray from following His path. And when we stray from His path, it's impossible to grow in our relationship with Him.
"Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart..." God wants ALL your heart-100%. He's very aware that we, all too often, give Him only a small percentage of ourselves. It's easy to participate in church service, maybe even be part of a prayer group and attend a Bible study, but it's something else completely to humbly confess our sins and bring a repentant heart to God.
"Rend your heart and not your garments." There's no faking it with God. A repentant heart is the only soil in which a close relationship with God can grow.
God wants you and me to bring "a broken and contrite heart" to Him this Easter.
God wants you and me to bring "a broken and contrite heart" to Him this Easter.
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| Maja Lisa Engelhardt (Danish, 1956–), Jesus on the Shore. Altarpiece, Turup Church, Assens, Denmark. |
Come, My Light
Come, my Light,
and illumine my darkness.
Come, my Life,
and revive me from death.
Come, my Physician,
and heal my wounds.
Come, Flame of divine love,
and burn up the thorns of my sins,
kindling my heart
with the flame of thy love.- Dimitrii of Rostov
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